British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England at Waterside, near 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, including a bailout equivalent to £300 million during the COVID-19 crisis. After the bailout, the company was a recipient of funding through the UK's furlough scheme, as well as receiving an additional £2 billion in a state backed loan in 2021.
History
The corporate lineage of British Airways goes back to five airlines established in the United Kingdom between 1916 and 1922. The first of these, Aircraft Transport & Travel (AT&T), began the world's first daily international commercial air service from London to Paris on 25 August 1919. The five airlines merged in 1924 and several other airlines were established and merged during the 1930s and 1940s. The mergers and acquisitions resulted in two state-owned airlines, the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), formed in 1939, and British European Airways (BEA), formed in 1947.
Proposals to establish a single British airline, combining the assets of the BOAC and BEA, were first raised in 1953 as a result of difficulties in attempts by BOAC and BEA to negotiate air rights through the British colony of Cyprus. Increasingly BOAC was protesting that BEA was using its subsidiary Cyprus Airways to circumvent an agreement that BEA would not fly routes further east than Cyprus, particularly to the increasingly important oil regions in the Middle East. The chairman of BOAC, Miles Thomas, was in favour of a merger as a potential solution to this disagreement and had backing for the idea from the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, Rab Butler. However, opposition from the Treasury blocked the proposal.
Consequently, it was only following the recommendations of the 1969 Edwards Report that a new British Airways Board, managing both BEA and BOAC, and the two regional British airlines Cambrian Airways based at Cardiff, and Northeast Airlines based at Newcastle upon Tyne, was constituted on 1 April 1972. Although each airline's branding was maintained initially, two years later the British Airways Board unified its branding, effectively establishing British Airways as an airline on 31 March 1974.
Following two years of fierce competition with British Caledonian, the second-largest airline in the United Kingdom at the time, the Government changed its aviation policy in 1976 so that the two carriers would no longer compete on long-haul routes.
British Airways and Air France operated the Concorde, the world's first supersonic aircraft that first carried passengers on 21 January 1976 from London Heathrow to Bahrain. Services to the United States began on 24 May 1976 with a flight to Washington Dulles, and flights to New York JFK followed on 22 September 1977. Service to Singapore was established in co-operation with Singapore Airlines as a continuation of the flight to Bahrain. Following the crash of Air France Flight 4590 and the 11 September attacks, British Airways decided to cease Concorde operations in 2003 after 27 years of service. The final commercial Concorde flight was BA002 from New York-JFK to London-Heathrow on 24 October 2003.
In 1981 the airline was instructed to prepare for privatisation by the Thatcher government. Sir John King, later Lord King, was appointed chairman, charged with bringing the airline back into profitability. While many other large airlines struggled, King was credited with transforming British Airways into one of the most profitable air carriers in the world. In December 1983, British Airways plc was formed with the government holding all of the shares. BA was privatised and was floated on the London Stock Exchange in February 1987. British Airways effected the takeover of the UK's "second" airline, British Caledonian, in July of that same year.
The formation of Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic in 1984 created a competitor for BA. The intense rivalry between British Airways and Virgin Atlantic culminated in the former being sued for libel in 1993, arising from claims and counterclaims over a dirty tricks campaign against Virgin. This campaign included allegations of poaching Virgin Atlantic customers, tampering with private files belonging to Virgin, and undermining Virgin's financial reputation in the city. As a result of the case BA management apologised "unreservedly", and the company agreed to pay £110,000 in damages to Virgin, £500,000 to Branson personally and £3 million legal costs. Lord King stepped down as chairman in 1993 and was replaced by his deputy, Colin Marshall, while Bob Ayling took over as CEO. Virgin filed a separate action in the U.S. that same year regarding BA's domination of the trans-Atlantic routes, but it was thrown out in 1999.
In 1992 British Airways expanded through the acquisition of the financially troubled Dan-Air, giving BA a much larger presence at Gatwick Airport. In January 1993 it purchased a 49% shareholding in TAT European Airlines.
British Asia Airways was formed in March 1993 to operate between London and Taipei. That same month BA purchased a 25% stake in Qantas and, with the acquisition of Brymon Airways in May, formed British Airways Citiexpress (later BA Connect).
In 1996 BA took up an option to purchase the remaining 51% in TAT European Airlines and acquired a $67 stake in Air Liberte.
In September 1998, British Airways, along with American Airlines, Canadian Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, formed the Oneworld airline alliance. Oneworld began operations on 1 February 1999, and is the third-largest airline alliance in the world, behind SkyTeam and Star Alliance.
Bob Ayling's leadership led to a cost savings of £750 million and the establishment of a budget airline, Go, in 1998. The next year, however, British Airways reported an 84% drop in profits in its first quarter alone, its worst in seven years. In March 2000, Ayling was removed from his position and British Airways announced Rod Eddington as his successor. That year, British Airways and KLM conducted talks on a potential merger, reaching a decision in July to file an official merger plan with the European Commission. The plan fell through in September 2000. British Asia Airways ceased operations in 2001 after BA suspended flights to Taipei. Go was sold to a management buyout backed by 3i in June 2001. Eddington would make further workforce cuts due to reduced demand following 11 September attacks in 2001, and BA sold its stake in Qantas in September 2004. In 2005 Willie Walsh, managing director of Aer Lingus and a former pilot, became the chief executive officer of British Airways. BA unveiled its new subsidiary OpenSkies in January 2008, taking advantage of the liberalisation of transatlantic traffic rights between Europe and the United States. OpenSkies flies non-stop from Paris to New York's JFK and Newark airports.
In July 2008, British Airways announced a merger plan with Iberia, another flag carrier airline in the Oneworld alliance, wherein each airline would retain its original brand. The agreement was confirmed in April 2010, and in July the European Commission and United States Department of Transportation permitted the merger and began to co-ordinate transatlantic routes with American Airlines. On 6 October 2010 the alliance between British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia formally began operations. The alliance generates an estimated £230 million in annual cost-saving for BA, in addition to the £330 million which would be saved by the merger with Iberia. This merger was finalised on 21 January 2011, resulting in the establishment of International Airlines Group (IAG), the world's third-largest airline in terms of annual revenue and the second-largest airline group in Europe. Prior to merging, British Airways owned a 13.5% stake in Iberia, and thus received ownership of 55% of the combined International Airlines Group; Iberia's other shareholders received the remaining 45%. As a part of the merger, British Airways ceased trading independently on the London Stock Exchange after 23 years as a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
In September 2010 Willie Walsh, now CEO of IAG, announced that the group was considering acquiring other airlines and had drawn up a shortlist of twelve possible acquisitions. In November 2011 IAG announced an agreement in principle to purchase British Midland International from Lufthansa. A contract to purchase the airline was agreed the next month, and the sale was completed for £172.5 million on 30 March 2012. The airline established a new subsidiary based at London City Airport operating Airbus A318s.
British Airways was the official airline partner of the 2012 Summer Olympics. On 18 May 2012 it flew the Olympic flame from Athens International Airport to RNAS Culdrose while carrying various dignitaries.
On 27 May 2017, British Airways suffered a computer power failure. All flights were cancelled and thousands of passengers were affected. By the following day, the company had not succeeded in reestablishing the normal function of its computer systems. When asked by reporters for more information on the ongoing problems, British Airways stated "The root cause was a power supply issue which our affected our IT systems – we continue to investigate this" and declined to comment further. Willie Walsh later attributed the crash to an electrical engineer disconnecting the UPS and said there would be an independent investigation.
Amidst the decline in the value of Iranian currency due to the reintroduction of U.S. sanctions on Iran, BA announced that the Iranian route was "not commercially viable" and ended services to Iran on 22 September 2018.
In 2018, British Airways partnered with British tailor and designer Ozwald Boateng to redesign the company's historic uniforms, in honour of its approaching centenary, creating a new look for BA, while adhering to its traditional style. The new collection "A British Original" was launched in 2023.
In 2019, as part of the celebration of its centenary of airline operations, staffed dressed in heritage uniforms dating back to the 1930s to greet Queen Elizabeth II and British Airways announced that four aircraft would receive retro liveries. The first of these is a Boeing 747-400 (G-BYGC), which was repainted into the former BOAC livery, which it retained until its retirement. Two more Boeing 747-400s were repainted with former British Airways liveries. One wore the Landor livery until its retirement in 2020 (G-BNLY), the other (G-CIVB), wore the original "Union Jack" livery until its retirement in 2020 also. An Airbus A319 was repainted into British European Airways livery, which is still flying as G-EUPJ.
On 12 October 2020, it was announced that Sean Doyle, CEO of Aer Lingus (also part of the IAG airline group) would succeed Álex Cruz as CEO. On 28 April 2020, the company set out plans to make up to 12,000 staff redundant because of the global collapse of air traffic due to the COVID-19 pandemic and that it may not reopen its operations at Gatwick airport. n 28 July 2020, the company's cabin crew union issued an "industrial action" warning in order to prevent the 12,000 job cuts and pay cuts. They reopened at Gatwick in March 2022.
In July 2020, British Airways announced the immediate retirement of its entire 747-400 fleet, having originally intended to phase out the remaining 747s in 2024. The airline stated that its decision to bring forward the date was in part due to the downturn in air travel following the COVID-19 pandemic and to focus on incorporating more modern and fuel-efficient aircraft such as the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787. At the same time, British Airways also announced its intention to eliminate carbon emissions by 2050.
In January 2026, British Airways Chief Commercial Officer Colm Lac was one of the business representatives from the financial sector to accompany UK Prime Minister Starmer in his meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang on Thursday to discuss trade, investment and national security.
Corporate affairs
Customer relations
British Airways has a reputation for poor service, including poor treatment by staff, frequent changes to its offerings, and an unwillingness to pay compensation claims. In 2025, the airline was named worst in long-haul flights, based on a customer survey by the consumer group, Which?. Increasingly the firm has focused on its consumers in more expensive classes, opposed to economy flyers. This shift began slowly in 2020, as a result of a corporate redirection, lead by current CEO Sean Doyle with a vision to expand the company's premium offerings. The company then announced suddenly in 2025 that they would change their loyalty point system for frequent flyers, inciting public backlash as many customers lost accrued value in points. The company was forced to reverse course on some of its strategic offerings, only for premium customers, after customer complaints.
In recent years, the firm has been noted publicly for its inability to respond to customer requests. During a recent power outage, the company's website stated that no flights were delayed, despite several cancellations occurring with passengers stranded on planes. In May 2025, A BBC journalist was incorrectly boarded on their flight by staff under a different name, causing her return journey to be cancelled. This exposed security failures present in the airline's practices.
Business trends
The key trends for British Airways are shown below.
On the merger with Iberia, the accounting reference date was changed from 31 March to 31 December; figures below are therefore for the years to 31 March up to 2010, for the nine months to 31 December 2010, and for the years to 31 December thereafter:
In 2020, due to the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, British Airways had to reduce its 42,000-strong workforce by 12,000 jobs. According to the estimate by IAG, a parent company, it will take the air travel industry several years to return to previous performance and profitability levels.
However, 2022 saw a dramatic increase in travel, and the company now faced a worker shortage, forcing it to cancel more than 1,500 flights. During February 2023, The international airlines group, the owners of British Airways announced that the group has returned to making an annual profit of €1.3 billion for the first time since the pandemic, following a €2.8 billion loss in 2021. The company warned that due to the surge in demand for flying this could lead to more disruption.
Operations
British Airways is the largest airline based in the United Kingdom in terms of fleet size, international flights, and international destinations and was, until 2008, the largest airline by passenger numbers. The airline carried 34.6 million passengers in 2008, but, rival carrier easyJet transported 44.5 million passengers that year, passing British Airways for the first time. British Airways holds a United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority Type A Operating Licence, it is permitted to carry passengers, cargo, and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats.
The airline's head office, Waterside, is located in Harmondsworth, a village near Heathrow Airport. Waterside was completed in June 1998 to replace British Airways' previous head office, Speedbird House, located on the grounds of Heathrow.
British Airways' main base is at Heathrow Airport, but it also has a major presence at Gatwick Airport. It also has a base at London City Airport, where its subsidiary BA CityFlyer is the largest operator. BA had previously operated a significant hub at Manchester Airport. Manchester to New York (JFK) services were withdrawn; later all international services outside London ceased when the subsidiary BA Connect was sold. Passengers wishing to travel internationally with BA either to or from regional UK destinations must now transfer in London. Heathrow Airport is dominated by British Airways, which owns 50% of the slots available at the airport as of 2019, growing from 40% in 2004. The majority of BA services operate from Terminal 5, with the exception of some flights at Terminal 3 owing to insufficient capacity at Terminal 5. At London City Airport, the company owns 52% of the slots as of 2019.
In August 2014, Willie Walsh advised the airline would continue to use flight paths over Iraq despite the hostilities there. A few days earlier Qantas announced it would avoid Iraqi airspace, while other airlines did likewise. The issue arose following the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine, and a temporary suspension of flights to and from Ben Gurion Airport during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict.
Subsidiaries
Over its history, BA has had many subsidiaries. In addition to the below, British Airways also owned Airways Aero Association, the operator of the British Airways flying club based at Wycombe Air Park in High Wycombe, until it was sold to Surinder Arora in 2007.
Franchises
Shareholdings
British Airways obtained a 15% stake in the now-defunct UK regional airline Flybe from the sale of BA Connect in March 2007. It sold the stake in 2014.
BA also owned a 10% stake in InterCapital and Regional Rail (ICRR), the company that managed the operations of Eurostar (UK) Ltd from 1998 to 2010, when the management of Eurostar was restructured.
Industrial relations
1990s
Staff working for British Airways are represented by a number of trade unions. Pilots are represented by British Air Line Pilots' Association, cabin crew by British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association, a branch of Unite the Union; other employees are represented by other Unite the Union branches and the GMB Union.
In 1997, under Bob Ayling, management faced strike action by cabin crew over a £1billion cost-cutting drive to return the airline to profitability. After this strike, in 2009 another cabin crew strike occurred. Staff morale has reportedly been unstable since the 2009 strike. In an effort to increase interaction between management, employees, and the unions, various conferences and workshops have taken place, often with thousands in attendance.
2000s
In 2005, wildcat action was taken by union members over a decision by Gate Gourmet not to renew the contracts of 670 workers and replace them with agency staff. The strike was estimated to cost British Airways £30 million, disrupting 100,000 passengers flights. In October 2006, BA became involved in a civil rights dispute when a Christian employee was forbidden to wear a necklace bearing the cross, a religious symbol. While a long-standing employee policy, British politicians such as the former Home Secretary John Reid and the former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw have questioned the policy.
Relations have been turbulent between BA and its largest union, Unite. In 2007, cabin crew threatened strike action over proposed salary changes, but was called off at the last minute. This disagreement resulted in losses of £80 million for the airline. In December 2009, a ballot for strike action over the Christmas holiday period received a high level of support, but action was blocked by a court injunction deeming the ballot illegal.
2010s
Negotiations between the parties failed to stop strike action in March 2010. During the strike, British Airways rescinded on employee benefits to those who participated in the strike. The Guardian reported that BA had consulted with outside firms in order undermine the unions: although the story was later withdrawn. A strike was announced for May 2010, where BA again sought an injunction. Members of the Socialist Workers Party disrupted negotiations between BA management and Unite union to support industrial action. Further disruption struck when Derek Simpson, a Unite co-leader, was discovered to have leaked details of confidential negotiations online via Twitter.
Industrial action re-emerged in 2017, this time brought on by flight attendants employed by Mixed Fleet, who received less favourable pay and terms and conditions, compared with cabin staff who joined prior to 2010. A ballot for industrial action was distributed to Mixed Fleet crew in November 2016, resulting in an overwhelmingly majority support for industrial action. Unite described Mixed Fleet crew as on "poverty pay", with many Mixed Fleet flight attendants sleeping in their cars in between shifts because they cannot afford the fuel to drive home, or operating while sick as they cannot afford to call in sick and lose their pay for the shift.
The union demanded BA end its anti-union practice of removing staff travel concessions, bonus payments, and other benefits to cabin crew who undertook industrial action; as well as strike-breaking tactics such as wet-leasing aircraft from other airlines and offering financial incentives for cabin crew not to strike. The first strike dates during the 2016 Christmas holiday were cancelled due to ongoing pay negotiations. Industrial action by Mixed Fleet later started in January 2017, after rejecting the airline's pay offer. Strike action continued throughout 2017, resulting in one of the longest running disputes in aviation history. On October 31 of that year, after 85 days of discontinuous industrial action, Mixed Fleet accepted a new pay deal from BA and ended the strikes.
2020s
In the summer of 2022, Unite and GMB union members backed a proposal to strike during the summer holiday at Heathrow airport. Strikes were proposed amid staffing shortages and low wages, as reported by union representatives.