Caledonian Airways

Caledonian Airways was a Scottish international airline formed in 1961, initially using Douglas DC-7s. It was founded by John de la Haye and Adam Thomson, and initially was a successful charter operation.

In November 1970, the airline bought and merged with British United Airways. After two years, having used the interim name "Caledonian//BUA", the airline was renamed British Caledonian Airways. British Caledonian became Europe's largest independent airline, with an extensive global route network.

Accidents and incidents

A Douglas DC-7C (Registration G-ARUD) crashed on 4 March 1962 at Douala, Cameroon. Caledonian Airways Flight 153 crashed into a swamp shortly after take-off, and 101 passengers and ten crew died. The probable cause was a jammed right elevator trim tab, which meant the aircraft could not climb. This is the only fatal incident in the airline's history.

econd incarnation

British Airways took over British Caledonian in the late 1980s and rebranded its charter arm British Airtours as Caledonian Airways. The livery was an updated version of the BCal livery with traits from the British Airways livery of 1984.

Through the 1990s, the British charter airline market underwent significant price-driven consolidation. The airlines flying older types almost all went under or were absorbed. Caledonian was in a strong position initially with a fleet of Boeing 757's and Lockheed L-1011s, but suffered as the charter airline market became more vertical, with each airline being fed primarily by customers from its in-house tour companies. Caledonian did not have such tour companies and instead provide flight capacity to other tour operators.

This subsidiary was finally sold by British Airways to the Carlson Group and ordered Airbus A320's to replace the Boeing 757's which returned to BA. ICAO code: CKT. The blue and gold colour scheme of the aircraft remained the same. The airline became part of the Thomas Cook Group (along with Flying Colours) in the late 1990s, which resulted in the aircraft forming part of the new JMC Air fleet in 2000. The Caledonian name and colours were lost to the new bright green colours of JMC. Most Tristars were quickly withdrawn and scrapped; two kept on flying for various cargo airlines still in Caledonian colours. JMC Air changed name again for the summer season of 2003 to Thomas Cook Airlines. Thomas Cook retired the former Caledonian DC-10-30s that were in their fleet, replacing them with Airbus A330-200s. Thomas Cook Airlines still operates some of the newer A320s that were delivered to Caledonian shortly before their takeover by the JMC group.

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