This made BCal the UK's foremost independent airline of the time. Although Dan-Air and Britannia Airways exceeded BCal's total annual passenger numbers from 1975, BCal maintained its position as Britain's leading independent international scheduled airline, in terms of both the number of scheduled passengers carried each year and the total yearly scheduled capacity measured in passenger kilometres, throughout its 17-year existence.) The newly created company's output measured in available capacity tonne kilometres was greater than that of some of the smaller, contemporary European flag carriers, such as Aer Lingus, Air India, Sabena, or Swissair. By that measure, BCal was about the same size as Australia's flag carrier Qantas.