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This article was published in 2019 in a series on the history of British Airways and its predecessors Imperial Airways, BOAC and BEA. You can browse all 100 stories in number order, by theme or by decade.
Many have been updated since first published.
London Heathrow airport has been BA’s principal UK hub for the entirety of its, and much of its predecessors, existence.
Attempts to create a second London hub at Gatwick failed and BA has withdrawn virtually all non-London from UK regional airports.
Whilst the airport has its operational constraints and at times BA has had a difficult relationship with its owner that could be summed up as “Can’t live with you. Can’t live without you.”, if affords the airline a dominant position in one of the most lucrative premium traffic markets in the world.
This is so much so that rival airlines are prepared to pay tens of millions of dollars for a single pair of arrival and departure slots.
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The Origins of Heathrow
Heathrow traces its origins to the 1920s.
In 1925, RAF test pilot Norman MacMillan was forced to make an emergency landing at the small rural hamlet of Heathrow and considered the terrain ideal for an airfield.
Four years later Norman MacMillan joined forces with British aero-engineer Richard Fairey who needed a new airfield for his aircraft-building business. Richard Fairey bought 150 acres of farm land at Heathrow and built a new aerodrome, to be known as the Great West Aerodrome.
The site was requisitioned by the Air Ministry during World War Two. An RAF base was built on the site with three runways and a control tower. Following the end of World War Two it was considered surplus to requirements.
After The Second World War: London Airport Opens
On 1 January 1946, ownership of Heathrow passed to the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
On that day, the first flight to depart the airport was a British South American Airways “proving” flight to South America operated by a Lancastrian Star Light. The aircraft, carrying mail and freight only, arrived in Rio de Janeiro 32 hours later, before continuing to Montevideo and Buenos Aires.
The first passenger flight to arrive at the airport a BOAC flight service from Sydney on 31 May 1946. The Lancaster aircraft took 63 and 1/4 hours to fly from Sydney, landing 2 hours ahead of schedule. BOAC’s three times weekly “express” service to Sydney was the first route the airline transferred to London airport, having previously operated from Hurn (also known as Bournemouth International) airport.
Pan American World Airways and American Overseas Airlines transferred services to New York from Hurn to London Airport that week.
The airport was a far cry from the modern terminals of today. Passengers initially used military tents as departure and arrival terminals – though there was a branch of WH Smith!
The 1950s – The Central Area & Europa Terminal Open
As passenger numbers grew in the 1950s, architect Frederick Gibberd was commissioned to design permanent buildings for the airport.
The Central Area was created, along with the Europa Terminal, an office block known as The Queens Building (pictured below in the 1970s), and a 127 feet Control Tower. The new terminal was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 16 December 1955.
The 1960s – The Oceanic Terminal & Terminal 1 Open
Terminal 3 opened in 1961 and was originally known as the Oceanic Terminal and became the principal base for long haul flights.
The 1960s was the era of the emergence of the celebrity and popular culture. Many famous faces from The Rolling Stones to Joan Collins would be pictured departing London airport on BEA and BOAC aircraft.
Terminal 1 was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in April 1969. BEA operated the first flight out of Terminal 1, BEA 5362 to Edinburgh, on 17 April 1968.
On the opening of Terminal 1, the Oceanic and Europa terminals were renamed Terminals 2 & 3 respectively.
BA’s main home at Heathrow was Terminal 1 from 1968 to 2008 until the opening of Terminal 5, with a brief reprise from 2012 to 2015 following BA’s purchase of bmi. BA operated the last flight out of Terminal 1, BA970 to Hanover, on 30 June 2015.
The 1970s – The Jumbo Jet & Supersonic Era
In the 1970s, Heathrow readied itself for the era of the jumbo jet and Supersonic air travel.
Terminal 3 had to modified to accommodate the Boeing 747 which was more than twice the size of its immediate predecessor, the Boeing 707.
Ahead of the launch of scheduled Concorde flights to Bahrain in January 1976, part of Terminal 3 was converted into an exclusive Concorde terminal with a dedicated check in area, with an escalator to Concorde lounge, adjacent to the boarding gate for Concorde. Passengers were also promised that their luggage would go direct from check-in to the hold aircraft.
The 1980s – Terminal 4 Opens
Terminal 4 when it opened in 1986, at a cost of £200 million, became BA’s principal base for long haul flights, with a small number of short haul routes.
The terminal was officially opened by the Prince Charles & Diana, Princess of Wales on 1 April 1986. It opened to passenger flights shortly after on 12 April 1986.
Although Terminal 4 was intended to ease congestion in the Central Area, it was ill-suited in its design for long-haul flights. It was located south of the southern runway, so you had to cross an active runway to reach the north runway.
The 1980s saw BA launching more long haul routes at Heathrow with services to Bogota, Caracas, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Orlando, Pittsburgh and Tampa in 1985.
The 1990s – American Airlines, United & Virgin Atlantic Enter Heathrow
1991 was a significant year for Heathrow. Under a treaty between the UK and US governments only BA, Pan American World Airways and Trans World Airlines could fly to the US from the airport.
All other airlines, notably Virgin Atlantic and a number of US airlines following the deregulation of US aviation in 1978, had to fly from Gatwick.
Both Pan Am and TWA were heavily indebted and reeling from the collapse of international travel following the Gulf War, rising oil prices. Many clients, particularly business customers, actively avoided Pan Am the aftermath of the Lockerbie disaster.
Pan Am entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early 1991. It sought to raise around $290 million by selling its London routes to United Airlines. American Airlines purchased TWA’s London routes for $440 million.
This required a renegotiation of the bilateral treaty between the UK and the US. It also required a change in UK law which barred new airlines flying from Heathrow, which was intended to facilitate growth at Gatwick. This was lifted by the UK government in March 1991.
Virgin Atlantic started flying from London Heathrow to New York JFK and Los Angeles from July. In classic fashion, Sir Richard Branson dressed up as a pirate, covered a model BA Concorde at Heathrow with a Virgin logo and declared the airport “Virgin Territory”. This marked a significant deterioration in the relationship between the two airlines.
In total, the number of airlines competing against BA at Heathrow increased from 70 to 87.
The 2000s – Security Alerts & Industrial Relations Tensions
Following the events of 11 September 2001, BA embarked on a process to streamline its business and cut costs.
Many routes to Central & South America were transferred to Gatwick in the 1990s moved back to Heathrow. Denver, Phoenix, San Diego, Harare and Lusaka were also moved to Heathrow. Other Heathrow routes such as Manila and Taipei were suspended.
The process of reforming working practices and reducing labour costs was not an easy one. BA ground staff at Heathrow walked out at the start of the summer holidays in July 2003 over the introduction of a new swipe card system. Whilst industrial action in aviation wasn’t new, wildcat strike action at the time was very rare.
BA faced a call for industrial action by ground staff over the August 2004 bank holiday. This was called off, but the airline had offer a profuse public apology when it was forced to cancel many flights at Heathrow due to unexpected staff shortages.
A third consecutive summer of unofficial industrial action followed in 2005 when BA ground staff worked out in support of employees sacked by its catering supplier Gate Gourmet. The sight on TV news bulletins of passengers queuing in tents outside terminals would become a familiar one.
The airline remained exposed to geopolitical events. In August 2003, BA temporarily suspended flights to Jeddah and Riyadh on UK government advice of “credible intelligence of a serious threat to British aviation interests in Saudi Arabia”.
BA223 from Heathrow to Washington Dulles was also cancelled on New Year’s Day 2004 due to security concerns. Passengers on the previous days flight were interviewed on arrival and the cargo hold of the aircraft was searched. BA was also forced to cancel further flights to Washington and Saudi Arabia on 15 and 16 February 2004 respectively due to security concerns.
A plot to blow up a flight from London to the US in August 2006 prompted very severe restrictions on hand baggage and very public criticism by then CEO Willie Walsh over security queues and Heathrow forcing airlines to reduce their schedules.
Ongoing restrictions on hand baggage had a significant impact on transfer traffic. BA’s baggage handling infrastructure at Terminals 1 and 4 struggled to handle the volume of additional checked luggage.
That said, it wasn’t all doom and gloom. The introduction of a new premium check-in area in 2004, Zone R, and a new First Class lounge in Terminal 1 proved popular with frequent flyers.
Whilst this era was largely one of contraction, BA did add Calgary, Hyderabad and Shanghai to its network at Heathrow.
The 2010s – Post Terminal 5
The opening of Terminal 5 was well documented.
Whilst it did, after bedding down, deliver operational improvements, severe disruption due to heavy snow at Christmas 2010 exposed a still dysfunctional relationship between Heathrow and its airlines.
Relations between the airport and airlines have improved to a degree. There is at least at a more proactive approach to capacity reductions ahead of severe weather.
The acquisition of bmi British Midland in 2012 has cooled BA’s enthusiasm towards a third runway. IAG does not pull any punches regarding its costs of and effectively accuses Heathrow of misleading the public.
Should a third runway ever be constructed it will have a competitive impact on BA. easyJet has indicated it will seek access to Heathrow and a number of long-haul airlines will also be able to secure access and / or more competitively timed slots. That all said, no-one can predict the state of the industry by the time the third runway opens.
You can continue reading our 100 part series on the history of British Airways and its predecessor airlines Imperial Airways, BOAC and BEA in numerical order, by theme or by decade.
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