Cal Air

Cal Air International (Cal Air) was an airline based in the United Kingdom. It began as the charter arm of British Caledonian and latterly managed by Caledonian Leisure, operating a fleet of DC-10's between 1985-1988.

History

It was initially conceived on December 23rd 1982 with the simple name “British Caledonian Charter“. The airline was a joint company between British Caledonian and Rank Organisation. On October 27th 1985 British Caledonian sold its stake in the company to Caledonian Leisure, the name "Cal Air" was born and services started. Cal Air’s DC-10’s were mainly used on UK charter flights to the Mediterranean. In a highly competitive market, the company soon realised that their aircraft equipment was being under-used. Rather than utilise the DC-10’s range and look at worldwide destinations, the company stuck with their existing Mediterranean network and so comparatively smaller MD-83’s were ordered (c/n 49636; c/n 49637). However, these were never built as on December 7th 1988 Caledonian Leisure sold its part to Rank Organisation. Overnight the airline was named Novair International Airways (novair) and Cal Air was no more.

Livery

A predominantly white body with a red sash-like diagonal stripe incorporating large “Cal Air” titling. The tail logo had a large British Caledonian style Scottish Lion Rampant in red (see image).

Fleet

Consisted of the two ex-Laker Airways DC-10-10’s: G-BJZD; G-BJZE. A third was acquired in February 1986 G-GCAL.

External links