25 August 1919; 104 years ago (1919-08-25) (as Aircraft Transport and Travel Limited)
31 March 1974; 50 years ago (1974-03-31) (as British Airways)
AOC #
441
Hubs
London–Gatwick
London–Heathrow
Frequent-flyer program
Executive Club/Avios
Alliance
Oneworld
Subsidiaries
BA Cityflyer
BA EuroFlyer[1]
Fleet size
257
Destinations
206[2]
Parent company
International Airlines Group
Headquarters
Waterside London, England, UK
Key people
Sean Doyle (chairman and CEO)[3]
Stephen William Lawrence Gunning (CFO and director)
Revenue
£3,693 million (2021)[4]
Net income
£1,900 million (2021)[4]
Website
britishairways.com
British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport.[5][6]
The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, 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 US$1 billion on a single air route in a year (from 1 April 2017, to 31 March 2018, on the New York-JFK – London-Heathrow route).[7]
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 and Northeast Airlines. On 31 March 1974, all four companies were merged to form British Airways. However, it marked 2019 as its centenary based on predecessor companies.[8] 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.
It is a founding member of the Oneworld airline alliance, along with American Airlines, the now-defunct Canadian Airlines, Cathay Pacific, and Qantas. The alliance has since grown to become the third-largest, after SkyTeam and Star Alliance.
^Airways, British. "BRITISH AIRWAYS' SHORT-HAUL GATWICK SUBSIDIARY, BA EUROFLYER, REACHES SIGNIFICANT MILESTONE FOLLOWING RECEIPT OF AIR OPERATOR'S CERTIFICATE AND OPERATING LICENCE". mediacentre.britishairways.com. Archived from the original on 6 December 2022. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
^"British Airways on ch-aviation". ch-aviation. Archived from the original on 10 November 2023. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
^Davies, Rob (12 October 2020). "BA chief Alex Cruz steps down as airline reels from pandemic". ft.com. Archived from the original on 14 October 2020. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
^ ab"Annual Report and Accounts 2021" (PDF). iairgroup.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 May 2022. Retrieved 3 December 2022.
^Dron, Alan (6 January 2017). "British Airways aims to mitigate strike effect". Air Transport World. Washington: Informa. Archived from the original on 12 January 2017.
^"Get to know the flag carriers of the European countries". AirMundo. Archived from the original on 9 April 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
^Reed, Dan. "New York-London Is The World's First Billion-Dollar Airline Route". Forbes. New York. Archived from the original on 9 July 2018. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
^"British Airways' Centenary Launches with a Love Letter Featuring the Best of British Talent". British Airways (Press release). London: International Airlines Group. Archived from the original on 8 February 2019. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
after a BritishAirways Board was established by the British government to manage the two nationalised airline corporations, British Overseas Airways Corporation...
Qatar Airways in 2014 to operate flights for IAG Cargo using Boeing 777F aircraft owned by Qatar Airways Cargo.[needs update] BritishAirways World Cargo...
BritishAirways serves destinations across all six inhabited continents. Following is a list of destinations the airline flies to, as of March 2024[update];...
British European Airways (BEA), formally British European Airways Corporation, was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974. BEA operated to...
BritishAirways Flight 38 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, China, to London Heathrow...
British Midland Airways Limited (trading at various times throughout its history as British Midland, bmi British Midland, bmi or British Midland International)...
British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was the British state-owned airline created in 1939 by the merger of Imperial Airways and BritishAirways...
BritishAirways Flight 5390 was a flight from Birmingham Airport in England for Málaga Airport in Spain. On 10 June 1990, the BAC One-Eleven 528FL suffered...
September 1935, Allied BritishAirways Ltd was formed for the purpose of merging the publicly quoted company Hillman's Airways with the private companies...
Alan Hellary, a former chief pilot for British private airline Laker Airways. Following the collapse of Laker Airways in 1982, Fields and Hellary decided...
Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and British European Airways (BEA), and including also two smaller regional airlines, Cambrian Airways and Northeast...
British Mediterranean Airways Limited, stylized as B|MED, was an airline with operations from London Heathrow Airport in England. It operated scheduled...
there was a data breach that affected 380,000 to 500,000 customers of BritishAirways. The Information Commissioner's Office said that the attack had begun...
existence, British Asia Airways operated the following aircraft: Airlines created for political reasons: Australia Asia Airlines Japan Asia Airways KLM Asia...
TUI Airways Limited (formerly Thomson Airways) is the British arm of the TUI Airline group, which is owned and operated by the TUI Group. They offer scheduled...
BritishAirways Flight 2276 was a scheduled international passenger service from Las Vegas to London. On 8 September 2015, the Boeing 777-200ER operating...
BritishAirways Helicopters was a British helicopter airline from 1964 to 1986. Starting in 1947, British European Airways (BEA) had operated a Helicopter...
BritishAirways Flight 2069 was a scheduled passenger flight operated by BritishAirways between Gatwick, England and Jomo Kenyatta Airport, Nairobi, Kenya...
Eastern Airways, legally incorporated as Air Kilroe Limited, is a British regional airline headquartered at Humberside Airport near the village of Kirmington...
passenger aircraft on display together. Air France BritishAirways Braniff International Airways operated Concordes between Dulles International Airport...
com would close to BritishAirways Executive Club members, with all points automatically transferred to BritishAirways. Qatar Airways, the largest shareholder...
In 1997 BritishAirways (BA) adopted a new livery. One part of this was a newly stylised version of the BritishAirways "Speedbird" logo, the "Speedmarque"...
BritishAirways Flight 149 was a flight from London Heathrow Airport to Subang International Airport (now Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport), then the international...
went back to United Airways, one of the three predecessors of the pre-World War II BritishAirways. The [re-]use of the United Airways name together with...
subsidiary British Airtours as Caledonian Airways. On St. Andrew's Day (30 November) in 1970, Caledonian Airways acquired British United Airways (BUA) from...
in turn merged with the British European Airways (BEA) in 1974 to form BritishAirways. The establishment of Imperial Airways occurred in the context...
US Airways had 343 mainline jets, as well as 278 regional jet and turboprops flown by contract and subsidiary airlines under the name US Airways Express...
Airways Company Q.C.S.C. (Arabic: القطرية, al-Qaṭariya), operating as Qatar Airways, is the flag carrier of Qatar. Headquartered in the Qatar Airways...
BritishAirways Engineering is the aircraft maintenance subsidiary of BritishAirways which provides support services to BritishAirways and other airlines...
Global Information
£3,693 million (2021)[4]