Making Hate Pay

Who is Fiona Macintosh and why is her employer saying all those terrible things about her? A barrage of ads in U.S. publications condemns her as the "world's most hated stewardess," though a glance at her face proves that she is an absolute lamb. Supposedly, however, Fiona is detested by the other airlines that compete against British Caledonian Airways, the most aggressive scheduled carrier to appear on the crowded North Atlantic run in years. Caledonian launched its new flights April 1, to the accompaniment of a slick ad campaign that bills the company to American passengers as "the airline other airlines hate" because of the superior Scottish-style service provided by its pilots, baggage handlers and kilt-clad stewardesses.

Eleven years ago, there was not much of Caledonian to hate. Its entire fleet then consisted of a single rented DC-7C. Now it operates an armada of 33 jets that have been carrying more passengers in and out of Britain than once dominant BOAC. This year BOAC and British European Airways, both government-owned, merged to become British Airways, and made it clear from the start that the privately owned Caledonian's rapid intrusion into their business would not continue unchallenged. "We shall match them in everything they do," warns a British Airways-BOAC spokesman.

The man who has piloted Caledonian to the heights is Chairman Adam Thomson, an outspoken 46-year-old Scotsman who flew for the British Royal Navy in World War II, then spent 15 years as a commercial pilot before setting up Caledonian with five partners in 1961. Early on, Thomson established two major operating principles: he wanted the airline to be distinctly Scottish in character, so that it could emulate the success of other airlines with a distinct national identity; and he wanted a mix of chartered and scheduled services. In 1962 Caledonian became the first British airline to win a regular transatlantic charter license from the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board and, together with U.S. supplemental airlines, played an important role in creating a massive new transatlantic passenger market. Their new low fares forced major airlines to cut prices markedly.

Today, however, Thomson argues that fare cutting has gone as far as it can or should. Scheduled aircraft, he says, should be allowed to carry all forms of traffic. Thus a 707, for example, could carry a composite load: first class forward, economy next, charter passengers behind. Says Thomson. "The most economical way of operating an aircraft is to fill it."

Before Thomson can fly such mixed loads on his new route, he needs approval from other members of the International Air Transport Association--the very airlines that his ads twit--and from interested governments. Meanwhile, he is trying to pull in passengers for Caledonian's daily New York-London and five-day-a-week New York-Los Angeles flights by touting Caledonian's service (baggage handlers, the ads claim, take extra care with luggage, and stewardesses will sharpen pencils for the businessman doing work aloft) and Scottish image. Airplanes are named after Scottish counties and haggis is served to first-class passengers. "After all," Thomson says, "there are millions of people of Scottish descent in the United States."

The North Atlantic is the most heavily traveled long-range run in the world, but so many airlines are competing for the business that there still is not enough traffic for all to make a profit. Nevertheless, Thomson predicts that Caledonian will win enough passengers away from other lines to break even on its scheduled New York-London service in 1975 and earn a profit in 1976. If he manages to bring that off, other lines will have more reason than ever to hate Caledonian.

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