Timeline of British Airways

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Contents

1920s

1924
*March 31 - Imperial Airways formed by merger of four British airline companies.

1936
*January 1 - British Airways Ltd formed by merger of three airlines.
1939
*November 24 - Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd merged under provisions of BOAC Act to form the British Overseas Airways Corporation.

1940
*April 1 - BOAC commences operations, officially replacing Imperial and British Airways Ltd.
1946
*Civil Aviation Act 1946 proposes demerger of two divisions of BOAC to form three separate corporations:
**British Overseas Airways Corporation - for Empire, North American and Far East routes
**British European Airways (BEA) - for European and domestic routes
**British South American Airways (BSAA) - for South American and Caribbean routes
1949
*July 30 - British South America Airways merged back into BOAC.

1952
*May 2 - BOAC becomes the first airline to operate a passenger jet service, London to Johannesburg.
1954
*Two Comet 1 crashes ground the fleet, leading to discovery of acute metal fatigue due to the aircraft's design.
1956
*November 8 - BOAC orders 15 Boeing 707s. As the first Boeing jet airliner this began a relationship which would see British Airways become the largest Boeing customer outside of North America.
1958
*October 4 - BOAC operates first transatlantic jet passenger service, using the Comet 4.

1976, BA begins Concorde flights

1971
*April 14 - BOAC undertakes its first commercial flight with the Boeing 747-100, the fourth airline to fly the 747.
1972
*September 1 - British Airways Board formed, a holding board which controlled BOAC and BEA.
1974
*March 31 - BOAC and BEA dissolved and operations merged to form British Airways.
1976
*January 21 - British Airways and Air France begin commercial flight with Concorde. (BA:London-Bahrain, Air-France:Paris-Rio de Janeiro)
1979
*May - Margaret Thatcher becomes Prime Minister. Within two months she announces her government's intention to return BA to profit and privatise it.

1980
*June - Livery changed, "British airways" replaced with the word "British".
1981
*February - Lord King, "Thatcher's favourite businessman", appointed to prepare BA for privatisation.
1984
*April 1 - The assets and liabilites of the statutory corporation British Airways are vested in British Airways plc.
*December 4 - Livery changed. Designed by Landor Associates, the livery reintroduced the "British Airways" titles to planes.
1986
*August - BA orders 16 Boeing 747-436s, the first 16 of an eventual 57. Subsequent orders for the type were placed on May 18 1988 (1), August 16 1988 (2), July 6 1990 (23), December 19 1991 (2) and September 2 1996 (13).
1987
*February - British Airways privatised, valuing the airline at over £900 million GBP.
*December - BA completes its takeover of British Caledonian following that airline's collapse. This introduced many new aircraft to the BA fleet, for example McDonnell Douglas DC-10s and its first Airbus aircraft, the A320.

1999, BA receives its 57th and last Boeing 747-436

1991
*August - BA orders 15 Boeing 777-200 aircraft. In a break with tradition the aircraft are powered by General Electric GE90s, not Rolls-Royce engines. 16 of the airline's later 777s would be powered by the RR Trent.
*October - The first of BA's Boeing 747-436s are delivered.
1992
*February - Thames Television broadcasts an investigative feature on Virgin Atlantic's long running allegations of "dirty tricks" by BA. BA's PR Director David Burnside wrote in BA News (the in-house newsletter) that Virgin Atlantic and its Chairman Richard Branson made the allegations simply for publicity. Branson sued British Airways for libel, BA countersued.
1993
*January 1 - British Airways settles the "dirty tricks" libel case, paying £500,000 to Virgin boss Richard Branson and £110,000 to Virgin Atlantic.
1996
*Robert Ayling appointed as Chief Executive.
1997
*June 2 - BA takes delivery of its first 777-200ER, for which it was the launch customer.
*June 10 - British Airways unveils its new corporate identity, a newly stlyised logo and ethnic tailfins.
1998
*May - BA establishes a low-cost subsidiary, Go Fly, using ex-BA Boeing 737s.
*November 26 - BA orders 59 A319/A320 jets, the first BA order for Airbus aircraft (the company's A320s were part of the former BCal fleet).
1999
*April 29 - BA takes delivery of its last Boeing 747-436, G-BYGG. At 57 BA has the largest fleet of 747-400s.

2000
*April 25 - Rod Eddington named as next CEO, replacing Robert Ayling who resigned after poor company performance.
*July 25 - Air France Flight 4590 crashes shortly after takeoff in Gonesse, France. BA continues Concorde flights, causing controversy.
*August 15 - BA suspends Concorde flights after its airworthiness certificate is revoked.
2001
*June - BA sells its low cost subsidiary Go Fly.
*November - The UK Government approves the construction of Terminal 5 at London Heathrow Airport, a project BA lobbied for many years.
2003
*May - BA sells its German subsidiary Deutsche BA, now dba.
2004
*September - BA sells its 18.5% stake in Qantas.
2005
*March 8 - Willie Walsh named as successor to CEO Rod Eddington, who retires in September 2005.
2006
*February 1 - Fully owned subsidiary British Airways Citiexpress is renamed to BA Connect.

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