British Airways traces its roots to the world's first daily international flights
On 25 August 1919, a small British company began flying passengers between London and Paris every day, the first regular international air service anywhere. That airline was one of five that merged in 1924, starting a chain of mergers that eventually produced British Airways. Along the way came supersonic Concorde and a famous turnaround.
The 1924 merger was followed by more consolidation, leaving two state airlines: BOAC, formed in 1939 for long-haul routes, and BEA, formed in 1947 for Europe. Combining them was first proposed in 1953, partly because BOAC complained that BEA was using its Cyprus Airways subsidiary to sneak onto routes further east than agreed, towards the oil-rich Middle East. BOAC chairman Miles Thomas and Chancellor Rab Butler liked the idea, but the Treasury blocked it.
It took the 1969 Edwards Report to change things. A British Airways Board was set up on 1 April 1972 to run BOAC, BEA and two regional carriers, Cambrian Airways of Cardiff and Northeast Airlines of Newcastle, and on 31 March 1974 they became a single airline. Two years of fierce competition with British Caledonian followed until the government rearranged policy in 1976 so the two would stop competing on long-haul routes.
That same year, BA and Air France began flying Concorde, the first supersonic airliner in passenger service. BA's first commercial trip, on 21 January 1976, went to Bahrain; Washington followed that May and New York in 1977. After the crash of an Air France Concorde and the September 11 attacks, BA retired the aircraft, and its final commercial flight landed at Heathrow from New York on 24 October 2003.
In 1981 the Thatcher government told the airline to prepare for privatisation. Chairman John King, later Lord King, is credited with making it one of the world's most profitable carriers. Its shares went on sale to the public in February 1987, and it swallowed British Caledonian that July. In 2011 it merged with Spain's Iberia under the holding company International Airlines Group. It is also said to be the first passenger airline to earn over a billion dollars in a year from one route.
Source: British Airways
