Caledonian Airways was a

charter airline Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flight ...

in the United Kingdom established in 1988 by rebranding

British Airtours British Airtours (stylised as British aırtours) was a charter airline in the United Kingdom with flight operations out of London Gatwick and Manchester Airports. Established as BEA Airtours in 1969, it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Bri ...

when that company's parent

British Airways British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...

took over

British Caledonian British Caledonian (BCal) was a private independent airline in the United Kingdom that operated from 1970 until it merged with British Airways in 1988. It operated primarily from London Gatwick Airport in south-east England. BCal was formed ...

. It merged in 2000 with Flying Colours Airlines to form

JMC Air JMC Airlines Limited (also known as JMC Air, JMC Airlines or simply JMC and stylised as jmc) was a charter airline in the United Kingdom formed by the merger of Caledonian Airways (1988), Caledonian Airways and Flying Colours Airlines, followin ...

History

Caledonian Airways was formed in 1988 when

acquired

. The British Airways air charter subsidiary

was rebranded as Caledonian Airways. In 1995

sold Caledonian Airways to UK tour operator Inspirations, part of the Carlson Group. Between 1997 and 1998 Caledonian Airways operated four aircraft under the name

Peach Air Peach Air was a charter airline in the United Kingdom that operated for two years between 1997 and 1998. History Peach Air was formed in 1996. It was part of Caledonian Airways (1988), Caledonian Airways, created to operate for the tour ope ...

. Inspirations became part of the

Thomas Cook Thomas Cook (22 November 1808 – 18 July 1892) was the founder of the travel agency Thomas Cook & Son. He was born into a poor family in Derbyshire and left school at the age of ten to start work as a gardener's boy. He served an appren ...

in 2000. Caledonian Airways was merged with Flying Colours Airlines to form

. Who then renamed to

Thomas Cook Airlines Thomas Cook Airlines Limited was a British charter and scheduled airline headquartered in Manchester, England. It was founded in 2007 from the merger of Thomas Cook Group and MyTravel Group, and was part of the Thomas Cook Group Airlines. It s ...

, being part of the newly formed

Thomas Cook AG Thomas Cook AG was an Anglo-German, global travel group. The group had its headquarters in Rochdale, and sold products such as package holidays and flights through its 3 in-house airlines. On 19 June 2007, the group merged with MyTravel Group ...

Fleet

Caledonian Airways operated 39 aircraft during its 12 years in operation including one

Airbus A300 The Airbus A300 is Airbus' first production aircraft and the world's first Twinjet, twin-engine, double-aisle Wide-body aircraft, (wide-body) airliner. It was developed by ''Airbus Industrie GIE'', now merged into Airbus SE, and manufactured f ...

, six

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first membe ...

, six

Boeing 737-200 The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retained the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating ...

, one

Boeing 747-200 The Boeing 747 is a long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2023. After the introduction of the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, ...

, eight

Boeing 757-200 The Boeing 757 is an American narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the trijet 727, received its first orders in August 1978. The prototype completed its maiden ...

, ten

Lockheed L-1011 The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar (pronounced "El-ten-eleven") is an American medium-to-long-range, wide-body trijet airliner built by the Lockheed Corporation. It was the third wide-body airliner to enter commercial operations, after the Boeing 74 ...

and seven

McDonnell Douglas DC-10 The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is an American trijet wide-body aircraft manufactured by McDonnell Douglas. The DC-10 was intended to succeed the Douglas DC-8, DC-8 for long-Range (aeronautics), range flights. It first flew on August 29, 1970; i ...

References

External links

Airlines established in 1988 Airlines disestablished in 2000 British Airways Companies based in Crawley Defunct charter airlines of the United Kingdom 1988 establishments in England 2000 disestablishments in England British companies established in 1988 British companies disestablished in 2000 {{England-transport-stub