British Airways

British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, headquartered at Waterside, Harmondsworth, near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. It is the second largest airline in the United Kingdom, based on fleet size and passengers carried, behind easyJet. In January 2011 BA merged with Iberia, creating the International Airlines Group (IAG), a holding company registered in Madrid, Spain. IAG is the world's third-largest airline group in terms of annual revenue and the second-largest in Europe. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and in the FTSE 100 Index. British Airways is the first passenger airline to have generated more than $1 billion on a single air route in a year (from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018 on the New York JFK - London Heathrow route).

BA was created in 1974 after a British Airways Board was established by the British government to manage the two nationalised airline corporations, British Overseas Airways Corporation and British European Airways, and two regional airlines, Cambrian Airways from Cardiff, and Northeast Airlines from Newcastle upon Tyne. On 31 March 1974, all four companies were merged to form British Airways. However, it is marking 2019 as its centenary on the basis of predecessor companies. After almost 13 years as a state company, BA was privatised in February 1987 as part of a wider privatisation plan by the Conservative government. The carrier expanded with the acquisition of British Caledonian in 1987, Dan-Air in 1992, and British Midland International in 2012. Its preeminence highlights the reach of the country's influence as many of its destinations in several regions were historically part of the British Empire.

It is a founding member of the Oneworld airline alliance, along with American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, and the now defunct Canadian Airlines. The alliance has since grown to become the third largest, after SkyTeam and Star Alliance.

History
On 31 March 1924, Britain's four pioneer airlines that started up in the immediate post war period—Handley Page Transport, British Marine Air Navigation Co Ltd, Daimler Airways and Instone Air Line Ltd—joined together to form Imperial Airways Limited, developing routes throughout the British Empire to India, some parts of Africa and later to Canberra, Australia. Meanwhile, a number of smaller UK air transport companies had begun operating, and by 1935 many of these had merged to form the original privately owned British Airways Ltd. Following a government review, Imperial Airways and British Airways were nationalised in November 1939 to form the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). In 1974, BOAC and BEA (British European Airways) were merged into British Airways.

In 1976, British Airways commenced flying Concorde, making it one of two airlines to own and operate the supersonic Aerospatiale-BAC airliner. Simultaneously with Air France, BA inaugurated the world's first supersonic passenger service on 21 January, a daily service between Heathrow and New York becoming one of the airline's hallmarks. Initially, Concorde was a financial burden, required of the national carrier by the government, and it attracted criticism from the press as a white elephant. Several significant destinations suggested for Concorde, such as Tokyo, Japan, and Sydney, Australia never emerged as viable in reality. These were retired in 2003.

In 2019, as part of the celebrations of a centenary of airline operations in the United Kingdom, British Airways announced that four aircraft would receive retro liveries. The first of these is Boeing 747-400 G-BYGC which was repainted into a British Overseas Airways Corporation livery, which it will retain until retirement in 2023. Two more Boeing 747-400s are to be repainted with former British Airways liveries. One will wear the "Landor" livery, the other will wear the original "Union Jack" livery. An Airbus A319 is to be repainted into British European Airways livery.

In August 2014, Willie Walsh advised the airline would continue to use flight paths over Iraq despite the hostilities there. A few days earlier Qantas announced it would avoid Iraqi airspace, while other airlines did likewise. The issue arose following the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine, and a temporary suspension of flights to and from Ben Gurion Airport during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict.

Destinations
British Airways has its strong presence in the Heathrow Terminal 5, of which it was launched in the first en-bloc in July 2008. The destinations for British Airways do involve Berlin, Frankfurt, Timothy North, Hamburg and Munich.