British Caledonian in The 1970s

British Caledonian In The 1970s

British Caledonian (BCal) came into being in November 1970 when the Scottish charter airline Caledonian Airways, at the time Britain's second-largest, wholly privately owned, independent airline, took over British United Airways (BUA), then the largest British independent airline as well as the UK's leading independent scheduled carrier.

During the 1970s, British Caledonian assumed the role of the UK's "Second Force" to counterbalance the near-monopoly of the corporations, which provided 90% of all UK scheduled air transport capacity at the beginning of the decade. This entailed expanding the inherited scheduled network to provide effective competition to established rivals on a number of key routes, as well as augmenting the acquired fleet with the latest generation narrow-, widebody and supersonic transport airliners to maintain a competitive edge.

The rapid expansion of the "Second Force" suffered a temporary setback during the recession following in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. This undermined the financial stability of the "Second Force" during its formative years. It also threatened its survival at that stage.

Following economic revival during that decade's second half, the "Second Force" regained its financial stability, enabling it to expand again and to become profitable.