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
Mehamn Airport as alternative locations for the airport, and both received smaller airfields before Mehamn Airport opened in 1974. Widerøe operated de Havilland Canada Twin Otters until they were replaced with the Dash 8 in 1995. The airport served 14,392 passengers in 2014 and is the northern-most airport in Europe except Svalbard. Plans for an airport on Nordkinnhalvøya were first articulated by a committee appointed by the Finnmark County Municipality. Their 1966 report recommended that six regional airports be built in Finnmark, which included Mehamn and Kjøllefjord as a possible site. Simultaneously the national government starting on planning a national network of