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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.

One of the indicators of the development of BA in the 1980s was the launch of branded cabins such as Club World and Club Europe.

Although “Club” is used uniquely by BA, it is now synonymous with business class.

It traces its origins to BA offering a separate cabin between First Class and Economy/Tourist Class for passengers buying full fare economy tickets on Boeing 747 aircraft operating to the USA from 29 October 1978.

In March 1981, BA introduced its first dedicated branded long-haul business class cabin “Super Club” on flights to the USA.

These were expanding seats in a 2-2-2 configuration with a folding table in the middle of each seat pair for drinks and personal items. BA promised it was the widest airline seat available with 24 inches between arm rests.

Continue reading “BA100: 96. Super Club”

London Air Travel » Page 63

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.

Imagine being able to turn up at the aircraft gate ten minutes before departure without a ticket and being guaranteed to secure a seat on the aircraft.

That may seem fanciful today – even if you had a ticket you wouldn’t even be able to go through security and would have been offloaded from the flight.

However, on 12 January 1975 BA brought American style “shuttle” services to the UK.

Passengers travelling from London to Glasgow could turn up at the gate ten minutes before departure and be guaranteed a seat.

Not only that, if the flight was full BA would have another aircraft on standby. Flights operated every hour Monday to Saturday (every two hours on a Sunday) with a fleet of nine Hawker – Siddeley Trident aircraft in a single cabin.

This was of course an era of restrictive practices and demarcation of roles, and plans to allow passengers to buy tickets on board the aircraft had to be curtailed initially due to objections from trade unions.

Shuttle services would later follow to Belfast (from 1 April 1977), Edinburgh and Manchester.

Continue reading “BA100: 97. The Shuttle”

London Air Travel » Page 63

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.

By the early 1980s, television advertising was a well established marketing medium for BA.

However, the adverts themselves were typically the very definition of a hard-sell, very direct and very forceful:

The “Manhattan” advert from 1983 was a radical departure in many ways.

This was one of the first major TV advertising campaigns Saatchi & Saatchi made for BA bearing the slogan “The World’s Favourite Airline”.

It was also a quantum leap in terms of ambition and production values. The whole campaign accounted for half of BA’s £25m advertising budget for the year.

In a very cinematic advert, directed by Richard Loncraine and produced by James Garrett & Partners, to the surprise of onlookers, the island of Manhattan is seen flying over suburban London as it is directed to land at London Heathrow.

BA used the fact that the volume of passengers it flew across the Atlantic each year was greater than the population of Manhattan. By Saatchi & Saatchi’s own admission, they did not want to use shots of BA aircraft or cabin interiors.

Every year more people choose to fly with British Airways to more countries than with any other airline. In fact, every year we bring more people across The Atlantic than the entire population of Manhattan.

Continue reading “BA100: 98. “Manhattan Landing”, 1983″

London Air Travel » Page 63

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.

It was on 25 August 1919 that the first international passenger services began between London and Paris.

According to The Times newspaper on 26 August 1919, three aircraft operated the route on the day.

The first flight to leave London on the day was a Handley Page aircraft which departed at 08:40. It was piloted by Major Foot and carried 11 passengers, most of whom were newspaper journalists.

The weather conditions were described by a journalist for The Times as dull and showery. The interior of the aircraft was described as fitted with comfortable chairs in a silk lined cabin. The journey was considered to be made under comfortable conditions, save for some bumpy conditions over French soil. The aircraft arrived in Paris shortly after 1pm. It was due to return to London on the same day, but arrangements for refuelling were not made in time.

A second aircraft, an Airco 4, owned by Aircraft Transport and Travel Company, left Hounslow Heath at 09:10, arriving at Le Bourget Paris on time at 11:40.

The aircraft was piloted by Lieutenant Lawford and carried just one passenger, a journalist from the Evening Standard. It also carried a full load including daily newspapers, a consignment of leather, several brace of grouse and a number of jars of Devonshire cream. The aircraft left Paris one hour after arrival, returning to Hounslow at 14:45. It is this flight that BA regards as the start of its operation.

The third and final aircraft, also owned by Aircraft Transport and Travel Company, was an Air 16 piloted by Major Cyril Patterson left from Cricklewood at 12:30 and arrived in Paris at 14:45.

Aircraft Transport and Travel Company claimed the route as an operational success with the service shortly reaching daily with few operational incidents. A rival airline Handley Page would soon also launch a service to Brussels.

However, with competition soon arriving from airlines in mainland Europe, Aircraft Transport and Travel Company folded in 1920 and its successor airline Daimler Airways merged with a number of other airlines to form Imperial Airways in 1924.

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.

If you would like to receive all future articles published by London Air Travel directly by e-mail, then enter your e-mail address below:

© Copyright London Air Travel 2019

London Air Travel » Page 63

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.

British Airways as we know it today did not come into existence until 1974.

So how does it celebrate its centenary in 2019?

Unlike KLM, which also celebrates its centenary his year BA has not operated under one name for 100 years. And, unlike Qantas which celebrates its centenary in 2020, BA cannot claim to have had 100 years’ uninterrupted commercial operations.

Well, to buy in to BA’s centenary you have to acknowledge that, over time, aircraft and airlines have been transferred through various airlines. In truth, it is the 100th anniversary of international civil aviation in the UK.

The First Flight

BA traces its history back to Aircraft Transport and Travel Ltd which began flights from Hounslow Heath to Paris on 25 August 1919.

This was one of number of companies to begin scheduled operations in 1919. However, due to competition from airlines in mainland Europe, it soon folded.

The Speedbird

A successor to Aircraft Transport and Travel Ltd, Daimler Airways, combined with a number of other airlines to form Imperial Airways in 1924.

It operated both short-haul routes in Europe and established new routes to Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Imperial Airways adopted the “Speedbird” logo designed by Theyre Lee Elliot in 1932 which BA retained as part of its livery until its Landor livery in the 1980s. This subsequently evolved into the Speedwing and the Speedmarque, which you see on BA aircraft today.

Imperial Airways, together with Qantas, formed Qantas Empire Airways to operate joint-services between the UK and Australia from 1935 – a relationship which endured between Qantas and Imperial Airways’ successor airlines for nearly 80 years.

The original British Airways was formed in 1935.

Both British Airways and Imperial Airways were nationalised to form British Overseas Airways Corporation (“BOAC”) in 1939.

Continue reading “BA100: 100. How Does An Airline Established In 1974…”

London Air Travel » Page 63

Welcome to our 100 part series on the history of British Airways and its predecessor airlines.

The series runs from today, Monday 22 July 2019, until the day of BA’s centenary, Sunday 25 August 2019.

We’ll be covering the adverts, aircraft, airlines, cabins, liveries and routes from 25 August 1919 right up to the present day.

BA is of course an airline that has brought us some of the world’s most successful marketing campaigns, pulled off a major corporate financial and reputational turnaround, employed some of the most high profile and outspoken executives in the industry, and launched a number of world firsts.

It’s also an airline that has often found itself on the world’s newspaper front pages for all the wrong reasons, become caught up in major geopolitical events, and been embroiled in some of the most bitter corporate rivalries in aviation.

This is of course not just the story of BA, but also the birth of international passenger travel, its transition to a mode of mass transportation we take for granted today, and the changing industry dynamics in recent decades.

Before we begin, some caveats:

This is an airline with a long and complex history that encompasses at least four major airlines. It has acquired many more. Some parts of its history are easier to research and document than others. Airline fleets and route networks are vastly less complicated than they used to be. A degree of simplification is required when covering the past. Accounts of the early days of civil aviation are hard to come by and some differ.

There is also an element of subjectivity and a natural bias towards the past 50 years as material is much easier to come by. There is no great science behind the running order – some articles will come as no surprise, others may do.

Also, this list has not been reviewed or verified by any other parties, so should be treated as a draft of history.

With all that out of the way, let’s get started:

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.

If you would like to receive all future articles published by London Air Travel directly by e-mail, then enter your e-mail address below:

© Copyright London Air Travel 2019