Adam Thomson

Adam Thomson (Born: 7 July 1926, Glasgow.Died: 23 May aged 73.) was a Scottish businessman who founded Caledonian Airways .

In an obituary, The Scotsman reported:

The son of a Glasgow railwayman, after Rutherglen Academy and Coatbridge College, he went on to the Royal Technical College, Glasgow (now part of Strathclyde University). He served in the Royal Navy during the war and had been sent to Canada as a Fleet Air Arm pilot when peace was declared and he was demobilised. He had cultivated a passionate interest in flying and was fascinated by its commercial prospects. He joined Newman Airways to fly biplanes between the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands.

He returned to Scotland in 1951 to join BEA at Renfrew before taking up a variety of posts (West African Airways, Britavia etc). After much discussion with two colleagues in Glasgow (Marshall Gibson and John de la Haye) he founded Caledonian Airways in 1961. By 1966, Caledonian flew over 40,000 passengers which made it, if not a major carrier, at least one to be reckoned with. And by 1968, Caledonian was operating charter flights out of Gatwick to New York, Singapore and Los Angeles. He won a franchise to operate in the domestic UK market which proved commercially successful and very popular with the passengers.

Thomson realised he had to raise the company's profile. He launched a subtle advertising campaign that caught the public's imagination. Without overdoing the Scottish connection he pushed the friendly nature of Caledonian. Tartan was everywhere: the seats, the tickets and the stewards wore attractive tartan livery. They smiled a lot and were there to help you. In the early Eighties, Thomson entered prolonged negotiations to fly out of Gatwick to Dallas, Atlanta and St Louis. In 1969 he bought British United Airways (renaming the company British Caledonian) which brought him the South American routes and those from London to Brussels and Paris. The collapse of Laker Airways in 1982, allowed Thomson to buy its Los Angeles and New York routes. Two years later, he took delivery of his first airbus.

But the market was changing and outside financial pressures were cutting into profitability. The Falklands War, for instance, ruined BCal's South American business overnight. Worse, in the long-term, its principal competitor was undergoing a spirited revival from an aggressive new chairman, Lord King.

In 1988, Lord King bid for BCal. Thomson was adamant that his company should remain independent, and set up immediate discussions with Scandinavian Airlines. But it was all to no avail. Lord King simply increased his bid by GBP 250 million, and although Thomson walked away with around GBP 4 million from the deal, he found it a chastening experience. BCal was totally integrated into the BA stable within months. Thomson had maintained a strong presence in Scotland throughout his active business career. Apart from high-profile directorships with the likes of Royal Bank of Scotland and Martin Currie Pacific Trust, he was given the Scottish Free Enterprise Award (1976), made Businessman of the Year (1971) and given honorary degrees from Glasgow, Sussex and Strathclyde Universities.

His autobiography, High Risk: The Politics of the Air, was published in 1990, and he was knighted in 1983.