British Airways was formed after the British government forced a merger between the two British state airlines (BOAC and BEAC) on 1 April 1972.
British Airways can trace it's history back to 1924 when the five small British independent airlines of the time merged under state guidence to form Imperial Airways. At this time other European airlines had heavy state subsidies giving them unfair competitive edge. The new Imperial Airways would be Britain's first flag carrier and many of it's successes between the world wars were in pioneering long-haul routes to British 'empire' destinations in Australalia, the Far East and Egypt.
Imperial did far less impressively on regional routes to Europe especially against the excellent European networks of airlines such as Deusche Luft Hansa and Air France. In fact the airline effectively concentrated on the long-haul routes to the exclusion of Europe.
This lack of British 'presence' on scheduled routes in Europe was countered by the independently owned 'British Airways' of 1935 who flew Fokker 12 and Lockheed 14 aircraft between the UK and Europe.
24 November 1939 these two airlines were merged into a fully state owned airline called BOAC - British Overseas Airways Corporation. The new state flag carrier was formed in time of war and attempted to run the 'empire' air routes including the 'Horseshoe' route to New Zealand, using the land and sea based fleet of ex-Imperial Airways aircraft. European services were suspended during the war although a few routes were kept on for a time (diplomatic flights to Portugal and the famous 'ball-bearing runs' to Norway) until a number of aircraft were lost.
BOAC pioneered the world's first jet airliner - the Comet 1 - the first of a line of British-built jet airliners.
After the war Britain's flag-carrier was split into two, the European and Domestic routes that BOAC flew were transfered to the new 'European Division' of the state airline: BEAC (British European Airways Corporation). BEAC was soon known simply as BEA. Although BEA began operations with a fleet of C-47 Dakotas it introduced Britain's first post-war civil airliner, the Viking.
BRITISH AIRWAYS - 1972
The contemporary British Airways was formed on 1 April 1972 when the government merged the two state airlines, on paper at first. It would take until mid 1974 for the two airlines to actually 'merge' their two completely different operations and personnel into the new state carrier. The title 'British Airways' was only seen for the first time in 1974.
MERGING THE FLEETS...
BEA were using a large fleet of Tridents, BAC111-500s, Vanguards and Viscounts at the merger, the Comet 4Bs having been scrapped or given to BEA Airtours (subsequently known as British Airtours) at Gatwick in 1972. Some of the Vanguards were converted to pure cargo and renamed as 'Merchantman'.
BOAC were using Super VC10s, Boeing 707s, and Boeing 747s at the merger. Some 707s went to Airtours to replace their aging Comet 4Bs. Two leased Viscounts were used on feeder services in Scotland.
BOAC had ordered the new widebody Boeing 747-100 jumbo-jet in 1970, an early version powered by Pratt&Whitney engines. The new airline, now no longer a state owned airline, was no longer forced by government to always 'buy British'.
The fleets were gradually repainted in the new BA colours. In the second half of the 1970s the airline placed orders for new types, often Boeing jetliners and used the aging pre-merger fleet while awaiting delivery of the new cost-effective fleet. Long-haul routes were flown by BOAC's fleet of Super VC-10s.
BOAC also had a large fleet of various Boeing 707 types the older of which were sold off. Some 707s were converted to pure freighter use with the newer jets of the fleet still in use for passenger services until the late 1970s.
BEA had a larger fleet-type base than BOAC and these were used well into the 1980s. The oldest was the Viscount 800 turboprop, used until about 1979 on domestic routes.
BEA's fleet of Vanguards were mostly scrapped except for the 'Merchantman' cargo conversions which were used until about 1979 when they were replaced with the cargo Boeing 707s.
BEA's fleet of Trident jets were flown well into the mid-1980s until they were replaced with Boeing 737s and 757s. Trident 1C jets were the earliest of the type and were seen in BA colours for years. The older airframes were scrapped first rather than the earliest variants of Trident. One of the last Trident 1C jets is seen below at Heathrow in June of 1983 and still in line service.
BEA's fleet of Trident Two jets, possibly the most attractive variant of the Trident line, were also flown regularly alongside the Boeing 737-200s that were slowly replacing them.
Another view of the British Airways Trident Two landing at Heathrow's runway 27-Right in it's last year of life. During the early 1980s British Airways flew with the titles 'British'. This re-packaging using the nation's name was not a success though and the full titles were restored.
BEA's fleet of Trident Three-B jets were the last of the line and they were the last Trident type to be flown by British Airways. With it's fourth engine for departure and climb-out the Trident 3B was rather ugly with it's extended fuselage. The photo below shows Trident 3B in British Airways' first colour scheme.
BEA's fleet of BAC One-Eleven jets were also used throughout the 1970s and even into the mid/late 1980s. BEA used several One-Eleven series 200 jets until the mid 1980s. These came from Cambrian Airways, a BEA subsidiary until 1974. Gulf Papa is seen here in early 1980s 'British' markings.
BEA used the BAC One-Eleven series 510 for it's 1960s operations from Manchester and within West Germany. The series 500 had an extended fuselage to carry more passengers and was the most successful of the One-Eleven variants.
PRE-MERGER AIRCRAFT ORDERS ARE DELIVERED
The first new fleet type to be delivered was the L1011 Tristar. BEA had placed orders for the Tristar series 200 for BEA's medium-haul routes. Lockheed then visited BEA's base at Heathrow with the 'Eastern' demonstrator aircraft (on a world sales tour for the new widebody jet). It was repainted in BEA livery with basic Eastern Airlines colours and appeared at Farnborough Air Show in those markings.
The super sonic Concorde was originally ordered by BOAC for trans-Atlantic services but was introduced in 1975 and never saw BOAC livery except in BOAC advertising literature.
From 1975 British Airways operated the Concorde on international supersonic flights. It was destined for the London to New York route but it's introduction was not as smooth as the aircraft itself. Protesters stopped the SST from landing at JFK and other US gateway airports for some time. So the airline flew supersonic flights to Bahrain while negotiations took place.
Tristar series 1 medium-haul jets were delivered in the 1974 colours but these were moved over to subsidiary charter company British Airtours when a fleet of series 200 Tristars were delivered for the 1980s.
Lockheed Tristar series 500 long-haul variants were purchased in the mid 1970s too, and were used on the old BOAC long-haul routes. But this long range, low density variant of the Tristar became of less use to British Airways and the series 500 fleet was sold to the Royal Air Force in 1983 for conversion to tanker for use on the long route to the Falkland Islands after the British-Argentinan conflict over those islands.
Boeing 747-200 jets were introduced in the late 1970s to replace the old 747-100 jets that BOAC had originally purchased. This series 200 jumbo was the first fleet type in a complete fleet renewal program that would see just about all British designed airliners replaced by foreign types.
British Airways was looking for a Trident replacement from the mid 1970s. The Boeing 737-200 was originally tested by British Airways using leased Transavia Holland 737s in circa 1979. By 1982 a fleet of the jets were being delivered from Boeing.
In 1985 a 737-200 was delivered from Boeing Company in a stunningly smart 'silver-top' experimental scheme.
737-200 G-BKYA in silver-top experimental markings
Boeing 737-200 G-BKYA 'silver' at Heathrow May 1985
Boeing 757s were introduced in 1983 as part of the fleet update. By 1985 the airline had introduced a new airline livery which continued BOAC's long running desire for a stately and undemonstrative look, supposedly fitting for a flag carrier.
The Scottish islands have always been served by a special fleet of small airliners. BEA originally operated these domestic services with Junkers 52/3m which were quickly replaced C-47 Dakota airliners. In the 1960s they used Heron and Herald aircraft. By the 1980s British Airways were operating these services with British Aerospace HS-748 twins. With the birth of the oil fields to the north east of Scotland these routes also included a route from Aberdeen to Sumburgh, the home of the oil business in the North Sea.
In 1987 the airline took over a Gatwick-based competitor British Caledonian (BCAL). BA's subsidiary holiday charter airline - British Airtours - was merged with the charter wing of BCAL - British Caledonian Charter, to form a new airline: Caledonian Airways. It's fleet was a mix of the two airlines' fleets with Airtours' Tristar-1s and Boeing 757s merging with BCAL Charter's Douglas DC-10-30s. The new colour scheme reflected the airline's origins with markings similar to the original Caledonian Airways.
1989 BA had decided to buy European equipment in the form of the Airbus A320 short-haul jet. It had been criticised previously for not buying the European-British Airbus when it first flew in 1974 but the A320 was a variant it felt would fit with it's route structure. BA had retired the BAC One-Eleven fleet and this was an ideal replacement.
By 1990 BA saw Boeing 737-300s delivered. The 737-300 below is shown in the 1997 'ethnic' set of colour schemes.
The 1990s saw BA expand into the world scene - in 1993 it acquired a stake in the American domestic carrier, US Air (now US Airways). Shares were purchased in Australia's QANTAS and British Airways took large holdings in the French regional airline TAT. It also formed the German regional carrier Deutsche BA.
A second independent British airline of long standing, IT charter airline Dan-Air London, faced financial ruin in the early 1990s and BA purchased it for the symbolic amound of £1 sterling.
Also in 1993 BA formed associations with many small UK domestic airlines serving regional airports. These airlines flew their aircraft in BA colours and link up their services to act as feeders and associates of BA. Brymon Airways was one of these airlines and is now owned by BA. British Regional Airlines is another (BEA was formed from Manx Airlines and Loganair). Brymon uses the Dash-8 turboprop and BEA flies with the Canadair Regional Jet seen below in new BA livery.
Franchise cooperations outside of the UK are also in operation. SunAir of Denmark, Air Liberte of France and Comair in South Africa all fly some of their fleet in BA colours on franchised routes. Comair are particularly interesting as they use the Boeing 727 in BA colours. The old BEA wanted to buy 727s instead of Trident 3B jets but was refused by the British government.
NEW SUBSIDIARIES
Two further regional airlines were started to be based at two main regional airports. BA Manchester and BA Birmingham use old BA Boeing 737-200 aircraft.
In 1995 British Airways formed British Asia Airways. This airline is based in Taiwan and uses British Airways Boeing 747-400 jets.
Another subsidiary - GO - was formed in May 1998 as a cheap-price scheduled carrier. GO was started with several Boeing 737-200s in competition with other low-fare airlines like RyanAir and EasyJet. By 2001 GO was to be sold off though.
Further new types were introduced in the 1990s including the Boein 767-300ER and the Boeing 777.
In 1997 the airline introduced a new 'ethnic' set of aircraft markings in place of it's historically conservative image (originally as BOAC) be-fitting the state airline of Britain at the time. Each aircraft had it's own scheme with Heathrow looking more like an art gallery than the world's busiest international airport. In June 1999 British Airways announced that no more aircraft would be repainted in the new arty liveries.
CLICK TO VIEW SPECIAL 'ETHNIC ' LIVERIES!
CONCORDE FLIES AGAIN
After the Air France Concorde crash at Paris in August 2000 all SST jets were grounded. British Airways has re-fitted the vulnerable areas under and inside the wings and the first passenger service was on 7 November 2001 although test flights were carried out in the previous month.
In 2001 the airline decided to repaint all of it's aircraft in a single British flag livery after the failure of the 'ethnic' liveries which were designed around the airline's advertising logo 'The World's Favorite Airline'.
After the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre on 11 September 2001 the airline industry took a massive downturn in passenger traffic. Airlines that are most affected are those high-price international carriers like Swissair, Sabena and British Airways. BA dropped many of it's long-term unprofitable routes in October 2001 in an effort to keep it's financial head above water. Over 20 aircraft have also been withdrawn from line service.
FLEET: Boeing 747-400, 747-200, 747-100, Boeing 777, Boeing 767-300, DC-10-30, Concorde, Boeing 757, Boeing 737-400, 737-200, Jetstream 61, Airbus A320.
DESTINATIONS: Worldwide network of over 160 destinations.
