British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier operating services to over 140 destinations worldwide. Services with franchise and code shares partners serve over 300 destinations. A founding member of the oneworld alliance, which offers connections to more than 600 destinations.
History
British Airways (BA) can trace its origins back to the birth of civil aviation, and the launch, on 25 August 1919, by Aircraft Transport and Travel Limited of the world's first daily international scheduled air service; flown by a de Havilland DH4A biplane between London and Paris.
Four main fledging airlines evolved in the UK over the next few years; Instone, Handley Page, Daimler Airways (a successor to AT&T), and British Air Maritime Navigation Company Limited. In 1924 these carriers merged to become Imperial Airways Limited.
Within a year, Imperial Airways was providing services to Paris, Brussels, Basle, Cologne and Zurich, with all services flown from the new London Airport at Croydon. New services were introduced during the 1920s and 1930s to Egypt, the Arabian Gulf, India, South Africa, Singapore and West Africa. A service between the UK and Australia was established in 1935, in co-operation with Qantas Empire Airways Limited, which operated between Singapore and Australia.
In 1935, a number of smaller air transport companies which had developed and launched services of their own merged to form BA Limited, initially as a privately-owned enterprise.
Following a Government review, Imperial Airways and BA Limited were nationalised in 1939 to form British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC).
After the Second World War, BOAC continued to operate long-haul services around the globe, with the exception of routes to South America, which were flown by British South America Airways (BSAA), until its merger back into BOAC in 1949.
Continental European and domestic flights were flown by a new airline; British European Airways (BEA), established on 1 August 1946.
BOAC operated the world's first passenger jet service with a de Havilland Comet in May 1952.
In 1967 the government set up another study into the industry, which recommended the creation of a holding board to be responsible for the two main airlines, BOAC and BEA, and the establishment of a “second force” airline brought about by unifying various independents. This lead to the creation of independent carrier British Caledonian in 1970, through the takeover by Caledonian Airways of British United Airways (BUA).
Two years later, the businesses of BOAC and BEA were combined under the newly formed British Airways Board, with the separate airlines coming together as British Airways (BA) in 1974. Although this merger was to lead initially to substantial financial losses and industrial strife, the new airline inherited its predecessors' pioneering path, launching the world's first supersonic passenger service with Concorde in January 1976.
In July 1979, the Government announced its intention to sell shares in BA. In February 1987 BA was privatised. BA announced a merger with British Caledonian in July 1987 which was completed with integration of the two carriers on 14 April 1988.
In 1992, a 49.9 per cent holding was also acquired in France's leading independent carrier, TAT European Airlines, and this was increased to 100 per cent in 1996, before BA decided to withdraw from French domestic operations. BA also acquired 49 per cent of Friedrichshafen-based regional carrier Delta Air Regionalflug in early 1992, renaming the carrier as Deutsche BA in March 1992.
In January 1993, BA formed an alliance with US Airways which involved the purchase of US $300 million of a new series of US Airways convertible stock. BA subsequently sold its interest in the US carrier. In 1993 BA bought a 25 per cent share in the Australian national carrier Qantas for £290 million.
Services to Nagoya and Osaka were temporarily suspended in October 1998 due to the recession affecting much of Asia at that time, and the plummeting value of the Yen.
At the end of 1998, BA agreed to acquire CityFlyer Express, a BA franchise, for GB £75 million. Following an announcement on 21 September 1998, BA became a founder member, along with American Airlines, Canadian Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways and Qantas Airways of a new global airline alliance, oneworld, which came into being on 1 February 1999.
BA acquired a 9 per cent stake in Iberia Lineas Aereas de España SA in March 2000, as part of the Spanish airline's privatisation programme. BA was engaged in merger talks with KLM from June 2000, but withdrew on 21 September 2000, having failed to reach agreement with the Dutch carrier. In November 2000, BA announced much-improved second quarter financial results and put its low cost carrier subsidiary, Go Fly Aviation, up for sale. In December 2000 BA restructured its loss-making Gatwick operation, reducing long-haul flights from 43 to 25 and cutting around 1000 jobs.
In 2002, plans for a potential merger with American Airlines, already raised and abandoned more than once during the 1990s, again came to nothing.
In the aftermath of "9/11", BA cut flight operations by 10 per cent, withdrew sixteen widebody and four narrowbody aircraft from service and axed 7,000 jobs in line with the reduction in passenger demand.
On 8 September 2004 BA announced the sale of its 18.5 per cent stake in Qantas, which raised £425 million. In October 2005 BA resumed merger talks with American Airlines.
On 5 March 2007 BA completed the sale of its UK regional subsidiary carrier BA Connect to Flybe. Through the deal, which included many of the assets aircraft and routes of BA Connect, but not the brand itself, BA also acquired a 15 per cent stake in Flybe. The BA Connect brand was subsequently adopted by franchise partner GB Airways on all of its services for BA, flown from Manchester, East Midlands and Bristol from 25 March 2007.
A new wholly-owned subsidiary, BA Cityflyer launched services from London City Airport on 25 March 2007.
From late April 2007 BA was considering making a consortium offer with a number of private equity companies for Spanish flag carrier Iberia. In early June 2007 it was announced that BA and its consortium partners had agreed that BA would hold the right to take over Iberia in three to five years as part of any possible bid by the consortium for the Spanish airline.
In June 2007 CEO Willie Walsh indicated that BA would be operating business class services across the Atlantic to US destinations using dedicated aircraft by the summer of 2008. This plan came to fruition in July 2008 when wholly-owned subsidiary "OpenSkies" launched services from New York to Paris Orly with a Boeing 757 configured for 82 passengers in business, premium economy and economy classes.
In October 2008 British Airways announced that it would be ending its franchise agreements with both GB Airways and Loganair so as to concentrate on its transatlantic services. On 2 July 2008 BA agreed to acquire French premium carrier L'Avion for UK £54 million (US$ 108 million) in a deal which was completed by the end of July 2008. L'Avion was to be merged with OpenSkies, which will then operate three Boeing 757s.
On 29 July 2008 British Airways and Iberia announced they were negotiating for a potential all-share merger between the two carriers.
On 2 December 2008 BA announced the intention to enter into talks Qantas a view to a possible merger, which would be by means of a dual-listed company. On 18 December 2008 the carriers announced that merger talks had been abandoned after failing to come to an agreement over the key terms of the merger.
Fleet
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