BRITISH AIRWAYS: DECADE BY DECADE
1919 – 1929 The birth of commercial aviation
1919 – August 25, BA’s forerunner Aircraft Transport and Travel Ltd launched the world’s first international scheduled air service between London and Paris.
1922 - Daimler Airways (a successor company to AT&T) began operations from Croydon to Paris using ‘cabin boys’ on their aircraft. (Image available)
1924 – Daimler combined with Handley Page, Instone and British Marine Navigation Company to form Imperial Airways.
1927 – Imperial Airways introduces the luxury Silver Wing lunch service to Paris, flying an Armstrong Whitworth Argosy. The aircraft featured the first modern-style airliner cabin, a steward, a four-course luncheon and bar. Flight time was 2hrs 30mins – the same as in 1919.
1929 - Imperial Airways launched the first through service from Britain to India (Karachi). The journey took more than a week, used four different aircraft and included 20 stops en route. Customers spent seven nights in hotels. For the leg of the journey between Basle and Genoa, they went by train. The single fare was £130 (nearly £6,200 in today’s money). A few months later, the service was extended to Delhi.
1930 – 1939 Growth and foreboding
1935 – The first service to Australia launched in partnership with Qantas Empire Airways, which operated the legs between Singapore and Darwin.
1936 – A separate operator, British Airways Ltd, was formed in a merger of three small airlines. It started operations from Heston, Middlesex (near the modern Heathrow). The airline operated flights to Paris, Hamburg, Copenhagen and Malmo.
1938 - Imperial Airways launched the Empire Airmail scheme with the introduction of the Short C Class Empire flying boat – which changed air travel significantly, improving speed, range and passenger comfort. (Image available)
1938 - Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich to Heston on September 29 on a British Airways Ltd Lockheed 14 after his final meeting with Hitler, proclaiming the achievement of “peace for our time” to jubilant crowds.
1939 - Following the formal declaration of war by the British Government on Germany in September, all civil flying ceased. The head offices of Imperial Airways, British Airways Ltd and the Civil Aviation Department of the Air Ministry were evacuated to Bristol.
1940 - 1949 War and aftermath
1940 – Following a Government review, Imperial Airways and British Airways were nationalised to form BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation).
1942 – In January, Winston Churchill made the first transatlantic flight by a British Prime Minister – in a BOAC Boeing 314 flying boat from Bermuda to Plymouth (Image available)
1946 - The first post-war UK-Australia flying boat service operated jointly by BOAC and Qantas began. The journey, on Hythe flying boats, took five and a quarter days.
1946 - BEA (British European Airways) was set up to operate domestic and European services. In May, Heathrow officially opened as the new London Airport to replace the old Croydon grass airfield. BOAC operated its first departure to Sydney, a 63-hour journey. Two months later BOAC opened its route to New York, flying the first post-war long-range airliner, the Lockheed Constellation.
1950 – 1959 – The passenger jet era
1951 - BOAC introduced its luxury Monarch service to New York in March using the Stratocruiser, with sleeper accommodation. In October, the then Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh flew to Montreal in a Stratocruiser for their visit to Canada.
1952 - Queen Elizabeth II arrived at Heathrow from Kenya on February 7 in a BOAC Argonaut after the death of her father, King George VI. (Image available)
1952 – Operating a De Havilland Comet, BOAC launched the world’s first pure jet service from Heathrow to Johannesburg via Rome, Beirut, Khartoum, Entebbe and Livingstone, halving the previous journey-time.
1953 - Comet services introduced to Tokyo, reducing the flight time from 86 hours to 33.
1958 - Beating rival US carriers by days, BOAC opened the first jet service across the North Atlantic to New York flying the Comet 4. Two Comets took off simultaneously from London and New York, and passengers toasted each other with champagne when the aircraft crossed in mid-Atlantic.
1960 – 1969 - The arrival of the big jets
1960 - BOAC opened services with Boeing 707s, with 146 seats – at least 60 more than a typical Comet. The first revenue-earning service was to New York on 27 May.
1964 - Introduction of the VC10, with up to 163 seats, for BOAC and the Trident for BEA. The VC10 was a British built four-engined aircraft designed initially for services to the Middle East and Africa. The Trident, originally with 97 seats, was developed for BEA's network of European and domestic services
1965 – A BEA Trident achieved the world’s first automatic landing carrying passengers, greatly reducing delays due to fog and bad weather. (Image available)
1965 – Launch of twice-weekly BOAC Comet charter service for UK emigrants moving to Australia.
1970 – 1979 Supersonic British Airways
1970 - BOAC ordered its first wide-bodied jets, the Boeing 747, which had more than twice the capacity of the 707.
1974 – BOAC and BEA merged by the Labour Government as British Airways.
1976 - The world’s first passenger supersonic services were inaugurated simultaneously on 21 January by British Airways to Bahrain and Air France to Rio de Janeiro via Dakar. (Image available)
1977- Concorde services opened to New York JFK and in December to Singapore, via Bahrain, slashing the journey-time to nine hours. The service was operated in conjunction with Singapore Airlines – and the aircraft used wore Singapore Airlines’ livery on its port side.
1979 - A Conservative government was elected in May, declaring its intention that British Airways should become privately owned.
1980 – 1989 – The privatisation era
1983 - “The World’s Favourite Airline” advertisements launched. The campaign ran for 16 years, one of the most successful in advertising history.
1986 - British Airways longhaul flights at Heathrow moved from Terminal 3 to the new Terminal 4 together with selected shorthaul routes. All other shorthaul services continued from Terminal 1.
1987 – After years of preparation, British Airways was privatised in February in a hugely oversubscribed flotation. Over one million applications were received for shares, offered at 125p, making the offer 11 times oversubscribed. (Image available) In December, the airline took over British Caledonian.
1987 – The airline appointed its first women pilots. It now has 175.
1990 – 1999 New directions
1991 - A campaign to bring back passengers after the Gulf War was spearheaded by "The World's Biggest Offer" to give away every seat free on the airline’s international services on 23 April.
1997 - The Chatham Historic Dockyard Union flag design was introduced on Concorde’s tailfins and subsequently rolled out across the entire fleet. (Image available)
1998 - American Airlines, British Airways, Canadian Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways and Qantas Airways founded the oneworld global alliance.
1998 - Low-cost airline Go, a BA subsidiary, opened its first ‘no-frills’ route from Stansted to Rome Ciampino in May. The airline grew rapidly and was sold for £100 million three years later.
2000 – 2009 New frontiers
2000 – Introduced the world's first fully flat bed in business class, as part of an industry-leading 'Lounge in the Sky' Club World.
2001 - Following the 9/11 attacks in the US, armour-plated cockpit doors were fitted in November on all British Airways aircraft as extra security.
2003 - Concorde made its last commercial flight.
2004 – BA became the first UK airline to enable passengers to print their own boarding pass.
2006 - BA set the record for the longest ever non-stop commercial flight, a special charter for Prime Minister Tony Blair and his officials from Brussels to Melbourne. The flight, in a Boeing 777-200, covered 9,274 nautical miles in 18 hours and 45 minutes.
2008 – Terminal 5 was opened by Queen Elizabeth II. In August, Britain's Olympic team arrived home from Beijing onboard a BA747 sporting a specially painted gold nose (Image available)
2009 – BA makes history again by launching (in September) the first longhaul service from London City Airport.
