British Airways which began life as Air Transport & Travel, took off on its first flight from Hounslow, west London to Le Bourget on the outskirts of Paris, on Aug 25 1919. The airline was the first to offer a daily international service.

The journey took two and a half hours and cost 42 guineas, the equivalent of around £1,700 today, and the plane was an Airco DeHavilland 4A powered by a single Rolls-Royce engine.

BA in its present form was created by the merger of British Overseas Airways Corporation and British European Airways, in 1974.

Love this pic....Imperial Airways formed the earliest long haul flight in 1924 to Cairo...now thats what i call an airport lounge.

 Photo credit BA Museum

 Kirsty Gallacher has modelled a 1970s cabin crew design to celebrate 90 years:

Credit: British Airways

Some classic Imperial Airways pictures:

See more like this Imperial Airways image from Flight's archives.

 Here are some classic images from the BOAC days:

 From Baron Inchcape

From the JP 2008 archive 

Boeing 377 Stratocruiser

From APG Photo

See some more images of British Airways through the ages