How Britain Built an Airline to Compete With Itself: British Caledonian
The Faded Kingdom
10,306 views
At midnight on the 14th of April 1988, British Caledonian simply stopped existing — no farewell flight, no ceremony, just a lion being painted onto somebody else's tailfin. For twenty-seven years it had been Britain's deliberately engineered 'second force', built by government policy to compete with the state's own airline, then reshaped and finally dismantled by that same state. How did four successive governments create, redirect and eventually hand British Caledonian to British Airways — and why did the lion never actually die?
In this video:
• Adam Thomson founds Caledonian Airways at Prestwick in 1961 with Scottish and American money
• The 1969 Edwards Report and the 1972 policy ordering regulators to prefer British Caledonian
• The £6.9 million purchase of British United Airways and the South American licence buried inside it
• Tartan, the Caledonian Girls advert and the pipe bands that made the brand famous
• The 1976 spheres of interest carve-up and the 1984 Saudi routes swap that triggered collapse
• British Airways' 1988 takeover and the lion's move onto a brand-new Caledonian Airways
Chapters:
0:00 The airline that vanished
3:20 Adam Thomson's Prestwick start
6:40 The Edwards Report
10:05 Buying British United Airways
13:30 Tartan, lions and pipe bands
17:00 Spheres of interest
20:15 The Saudi routes swap
23:40 Takeover and the lion's return
26:50 What survives today
Sources and accuracy: This film draws on the 1969 Edwards Report, Hansard records of the House of Commons and House of Lords, the 1987 Monopolies and Mergers Commission report, British Caledonian's own published annual reports, and US federal court documents relating to Scottish Air International and Murray Vidockler.
If you flew it, or your dad worked at Gatwick, subscribing takes two seconds and it's what keeps this being made.
#BritishCaledonian #AviationHistory #BritishAirways #Gatwick #UKHistory
15 Comments
My dad worked for them out of LGW this gave me my lo e of aircraft sitting for hours on the roof spectators area with my Airband radio as lad miss those days miss the airline!
livery, a bit stunted, squat, self-sufficient & gloriously noisy.
My 70's Spanish holidays ............
Excuse me, while I have a moment. 😊
MORAL OF THE STORY. Everytime the UK Government gets involved in the UK aviation sector, IT DIES
How Britain Built an Airline to Compete With Itself: British Caledonian
The Faded Kingdom
10,306 views
At midnight on the 14th of April 1988, British Caledonian simply stopped existing — no farewell flight, no ceremony, just a lion being painted onto somebody else's tailfin. For twenty-seven years it had been Britain's deliberately engineered 'second force', built by government policy to compete with the state's own airline, then reshaped and finally dismantled by that same state. How did four successive governments create, redirect and eventually hand British Caledonian to British Airways — and why did the lion never actually die?
In this video:
• Adam Thomson founds Caledonian Airways at Prestwick in 1961 with Scottish and American money
• The 1969 Edwards Report and the 1972 policy ordering regulators to prefer British Caledonian
• The £6.9 million purchase of British United Airways and the South American licence buried inside it
• Tartan, the Caledonian Girls advert and the pipe bands that made the brand famous
• The 1976 spheres of interest carve-up and the 1984 Saudi routes swap that triggered collapse
• British Airways' 1988 takeover and the lion's move onto a brand-new Caledonian Airways
Chapters:
0:00 The airline that vanished
3:20 Adam Thomson's Prestwick start
6:40 The Edwards Report
10:05 Buying British United Airways
13:30 Tartan, lions and pipe bands
17:00 Spheres of interest
20:15 The Saudi routes swap
23:40 Takeover and the lion's return
26:50 What survives today
Sources and accuracy: This film draws on the 1969 Edwards Report, Hansard records of the House of Commons and House of Lords, the 1987 Monopolies and Mergers Commission report, British Caledonian's own published annual reports, and US federal court documents relating to Scottish Air International and Murray Vidockler.
If you flew it, or your dad worked at Gatwick, subscribing takes two seconds and it's what keeps this being made.
#BritishCaledonian #AviationHistory #BritishAirways #Gatwick #UKHistory