British Airways
IATABA ICAOBAW; SHT
- Founded
- 31 March 1974
- Callsign
- SPEEDBIRD; SHUTTLE
- Headquarters
- Waterside, London, England
- Hubs and bases
- London–Gatwick, London–Heathrow
About the airline
British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, based in London, England. It is headquartered at the Waterside building, adjacent to its main hub at Heathrow Airport. 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. British Airways was the first passenger airline to generate more than US$1 billion on a single air route in a year. In 1972 a British Airways Board was established by the Government of the United Kingdom 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. BA was privatised in February 1987 as part of a wider privatisation plan by the Thatcher government. The carrier expanded with the acquisition of British Caledonian in 1987, Dan-Air in 1992, TAT European Airlines in 1993 and British Midland International in 2012. The company has received public support,…
This summary is adapted from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence. Fleet size and other details are taken from the same article unless a source is shown against them.