British Caledonian in the 1970s 31 March 1973 - with the BR airline designator it had inherited from BUA at the time of its formation. This resulted in exclusive use of the BR designator as a prefix for all BCal flight numbers. In 1973, BCal also inaugurated its fourth scheduled domestic trunk route between London Gatwick and Manchester. The new service was contracted to British Island Airways (BIA), BUIA's successor, which operated two daily return trips using its Handley Page Dart Herald turboprops. On 20 March 1974, BCal switched its Gatwick—Paris services to the then brand-new Charles de Gaulle Airport in the northern Paris suburb
HAL Airport October 2005 with flights to London and Paris, respectively. During the 2000s, commercial traffic to HAL Airport was rising at a rate of roughly 35% per year. Between 2006 and 2007 the airport received 8.2 million passengers, well above its capacity of 3.6 million. Because of this, in July 2004 the Government of India permitted the construction of another airport for Bangalore after a Concession Agreement with Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL, the company that operates the Airport), situated 30 km (19 mi) from the city in Devanahalli. The new airport, named Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (KIAB), opened on 24