British Caledonian in The 1980s - Network Expansion

Network Expansion

1980 saw the delivery of three more McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 widebodied aircraft.

The delivery of these planes enabled BCal to launch new routes to Atlanta on 1 June, followed by Hong Kong on 1 August as well as San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Dallas/Ft. Worth on 26 October. It also enabled the airline to replace the 707s, with which it had inaugurated another new route to St. Louis in April of that year, with its newly delivered DC-10 widebodies at the end of October when St. Louis became a stop on the new Dallas route. During that year, the company also added Tangier to its North African network.

This accelerated pace of growth made BCal the fastest growing member airline of the Association of European Airlines (AEA) in both 1980 and 1981.

BCal received a boost during 1980, when the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) approved its application to convert its restricted licence to serve Dubai as a refuelling stop en route to/from Hong Kong only into a full licence permitting it to carry passengers, cargo and mail between London and Dubai as well as Dubai and Hong Kong from the start of that year's winter timetable period, despite objections from British Airways (BA).

The high oil price during that period was a mixed blessing for BCal. It helped the airline fill its premium cabins on its oil-related business routes to Nigeria, Libya and Texas. On the other hand, the escalation of the jet fuel price and the fact that the high price of oil had considerably worsened the severe recession in Britain at that time significantly increased the company's operating costs, while at the same time reducing overall demand for its flights. BCal therefore decided to reduce off-peak frequencies on most of its short-haul routes from the start of the 1980/81 winter timetable period. This also included combining week-end, off-peak flights from Gatwick to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Manchester by converting non-stop flights into one-stop operations.

Among the set-backs BCal suffered at that time were the CAA's rejection of its application to add Manila as an extension of its Gatwick—Dubai—Hong Kong route, and BA's successful lobbying of the Government to revoke BCal's long-standing Gatwick—Bahrain—Singapore exempt charter licence in return for having granted it permission to launch a fully fledged scheduled service to Hong Kong.

BCal ended the 1979/80 financial year with a healthy profit of £9.7 million.

BCal received another new DC-10-30 widebody in 1981. The delivery of this aircraft enabled the airline to increase frequencies on the prime long-haul routes to West Africa from seven to 10 weekly round-trips. It also permitted a frequency increase on the Gatwick—Dubai—Hong Kong route from four to five weekly round-trips.

At the start of the 1981/82 winter timetable period, BCal added Douala to its network.

1981 also saw the completion of BCal's new corporate headquarters — aptly named Caledonian House — in Crawley's Lowfield Heath area close to the airline's Gatwick base, the construction of which had begun the year before. It was the first purpose-built headquarters in the company's history. This was also the time BCal opened a new engine overhaul plant at Prestwick Airport near Glasgow in Scotland. The new engine overhaul plant was owned and run by Caledonian Airmotive, a dedicated, wholly owned subsidiary of the airline, which had been set up with technical support from GE.

BCal's search for a more fuel-efficient replacement for its ageing BAC One-Eleven fleet — especially, the range-limited One-Eleven 200s — acquired a new sense of urgency during 1981 against a backdrop of further escalating fuel prices. The airline was evaluating both the new BAe ATP turboprop for entry into service during 1986 and the BAe 146, the UK aircraft manufacturer's new, four-engined regional jet that was due to enter service in 1983, in addition to McDonnell Douglas's MD-80 and Boeing's new 737-300. Both BAe types were rejected because it was felt that they had insufficient range to permit non-stop flights from BCal's Gatwick base to some of the more distant points BCal already served or planned to serve in Europe and North Africa. Moreover, BCal felt that operating a turboprop on trunk routes would meet with passenger resistance as by that time most people had become accustomed to travelling on jets on these routes.

In addition, during 1981, BCal applied to the UK and Australian authorities for permission to launch a fully fledged, three-class scheduled service between Gatwick and Brisbane via Melbourne and Colombo, and between Gatwick and Adelaide via Perth, respectively, at a frequency of two flights a week each, in both directions. BCal proposed to inaugurate what would have been the first ever scheduled operation Down Under by a wholly private, British independent airline with McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30s. BCal furthermore wanted this to be a joint operation with Ansett Airlines, one of Australia's two leading contemporary domestic airlines, and held out the prospect of placing an order for brand-new, higher capacity Boeing 747-200SUDs powered by Rolls-Royce RB211 engines to replace the DC-10s on that route as soon as this was justified by increased demand. It also promised to give a major boost to Australia's inbound tourism from the UK and to deliver a steady stream of international transfer passengers to Ansett. BCal's application to launch its proposed scheduled route from the UK to Australia did not succeed, mainly because of British Airways's and Qantas's determined opposition to any move by the authorities in the UK and Australia to dilute the lucrative BA-Qantas duopoly on the "kangaroo route". The CAA turned down BCal's application although it considered it superior to a rival application by Laker Airways. It felt that there was no realistic chance of obtaining reciprocal approval for the proposed service from the relevant Australian authorities, as long as there was no desire on their part to license a second Australian carrier as well. It did however promise BCal to look favourably on its application if it wished to re-submit it with specific proposals for a joint Anglo-Australian operation, once Australia no longer opposed licensing additional carriers on the kangaroo route.

BCal ended its 1980/81 financial year with a £6.2 million loss as a result of high fuel prices, a major recession on both sides of the Atlantic and heavy route development costs.