Timeline of British Airways

This is a timeline of the history of British Airways plc (including the history of predecessor companies which influence its shape today).

1920s

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

1930s

*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

1960s

*1960
**June 23 - BOAC signs a contract for the Vickers VC-10.
*1964
**March 11 - First passenger flight of BEA's Hawker Siddeley Trident.
**April 29 - First passenger flight of Standard Vickers VC-10.
*1968
**November 17 - BAC One-Eleven enters commercial service with BEA.

1970s

*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.

1980s

*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.
**August 18 - British Airways is offered on the NYSE.
**December - BA completes its takeover of British Caledonian. This introduced many new aircraft to the BA fleet, for example McDonnell Douglas DC-10s and its first Airbus aircraft, the A320.

1990s

*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 stylised 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.

2000s

*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 retired in September 2005.
*2006
**February 1 - Fully owned subsidiary British Airways Citiexpress is renamed to BA Connect.
**November 3 - Flybe buys BA Connect's Regional Routes
*2007
**March 25
*** BA Connect transfers to Flybe
*** BA CityFlyer based at London City Airport launches