[Music]
welcome to this episode of dwayne's
aviation
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if you boarded a flight in 1919 from
london to paris
you could have paid only nine dollars
for it this
is exactly what the first passengers
paid for the flight from london to la
bourget
in paris when you take inflation into
account
you must have paid over 450 dollars for
that trip today
that flight lasted two hours and thirty
minutes but it was not
in fact british airways that existed at
that time
it was aircraft transport and travel
limited
the history of british airways dates
back a long way to 1935
when allied british airways ltd was
formed for the purpose of merging
hillman's airways with the private
companies of spartan airlines and united
airways ltd
which were several small british air
transport companies to handle domestic
and northern european flights on the
other hand
there was imperial airways limited which
in turn was formed a year earlier in
1934
out of handly page transport along with
british marine air navigation co ltd
daimler airways
and in stone airline as of then
imperial was the golden boy they flew
international flights
they were bigger more visionary they
grew fast
and developed roots throughout the
empire to india africa
and even australia when the second world
war broke out
the british government implemented the
air navigation order of 1939
which allowed the military to take over
most civilian airfields in the uk
this brought to an end of all civil
aviation and both
imperial airways and british airways ltd
were subsequently moved to bristol witch
airport to form the british overseas
airways corporation
or the boac and was operated by the nac
which stands for national air
communication an organization the
british government established to direct
civilian flying operations from the
outbreak of world war
ii until april 1940. during this time
the nac had their fleets operate basic
civilian flights
and to support the transportation of
military personnel and supplies to
france
just after the second world war the
government lifted wartime restrictions
on civil flying in the united kingdom
boac resumed imperial and british
airways pre-war routes using douglas
dakotas
and british european airways also known
as the bea
became a division of the boac following
its formation
bea inaugurated a weekly dakota service
from northolt to madrid and gibraltar
followed by additional dakota services
to scavenger and oslo
copenhagen as well as athens via
marseille and rome
bea broke out of boac six months after
its formation to focus on continental
european and domestic flights
while boac operated long-haul services
from britain
by 1952 britain was leading the world in
the development of jet airliners
and boac became the world's first
airline to operate them
with the inaugural flight of the de
havilland comet from london to
johannesburg
by 1958 they replaced the first comet
jets with the upgraded comet 4 models
because of the in-flight breakup
problems associated with the previous
model
two years later they started to expand
slowly and their most popular route till
today was formed
the london to new york route which they
operated using the boeing 707
both bea and boac grew massively over
the years
to a point that they started seeing
conflict between each other on the
important oil regions of the middle east
and this was bad for their business so
boac's chairman miles thomas suggested
the idea of merging with bea
as a solution to this it was rejected at
first
but later it worked and the british
airways we know today was born
and this merger made them the world's
largest airline by network of routes
british airways inherited a mix of
almost old airplanes from bea and boac
in the process of retiring and replacing
them they went over the pond to buy
planes from boeing
and the rejection of european planes
from airbus caused huge political
problems for the uk
which was seeking integration into the
european community
in 1976 british airways commenced flying
the concorde
making it one of only two airlines to
own and operate the supersonic jetliner
which from the launch was a commercial
failure however by 1981
they recognized the prestige the ssts
brought
so they purchased all the remaining
unsold concordes
and turned a profit within a year by
raising ticket prices on corporate
tickets
where the executive flying had little
idea of what they were paying
and selling cut price package tours to
closer destinations
ba also hit on a cunning ploy of
guaranteeing a certain number of concord
upgrades in return for corporate
accounts with the airline
the aircraft was used mainly by wealthy
passengers who could afford to pay a
high price
in exchange for the aircraft's speed and
luxury service
for example in 1997 the round-trip
ticket price from new york to london was
seven thousand nine hundred and ninety
five dollars
which is equivalent to about twelve
thousand nine hundred dollars in twenty
twenty
more than thirty times the cost of the
cheapest option to fly this route
for many years however the airline
wasn't profitable
the government incurred huge losses and
were determined to get rid of the
airline
due to financial trouble a lot of fleet
and route were caught
and over 23 000 jobs were cut down
during this time sir john king was
appointed chairman
charged with bringing the airline back
into profitability
king transformed british airways into
one of the most profitable air carriers
in the world
the flag carrier was privatized and was
floated on the london stock exchange in
february 1987.
in july of 1987 the newly constructed
heathrow terminal 4 gave british airways
the chance to consolidate
and it also used this as a chance to ask
the hawkers italy
the vc-10 and the boeing 707
sir john king's leadership was so
successful that by july 1987
they took over their fierce rival
british caledonian
mainstream roots were merged and
competition removed
one of the major tasks sir john king had
to deal with was the emergence of
richard branson's virgin atlantic in
1984.
the company became a fierce competitor
for british airways
the intense rivalry between british
airways and virgin atlantic
got to the point that virgin atlantic
sued them for defamation in 1993
arising from claims and counter claims
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 reputation in the
city as a result of the case
british airways settled for 110 000
euros damages to virgin
500 000 euros to branson personally and
3 million euros in legal costs
richard branson divided the compensation
among his staff which was called the ba
bonus
but british airways and virgin atlantic
have continued to be bitter rivals
even though lord king's leadership was
successful this was a major blow to him
which led to him stepping down as
chairman and was replaced by his deputy
colin marshall while bob ayling took
over as ceo
british airways is now vastly profitable
it sat on a pot of money and used it to
buy many smaller rivals
in a similar fashion to caledonian
airways in 1992
ba absorbed the smaller uk carrier dan
air which had roots from gatwick
and so was able to dramatically increase
its presence there
the same year it also bought delta air
transport and renamed it deutsche ba as
a german domestic airline
it did the same trick in france by
purchasing a half share in tat european
airlines
and 70 percent of air liberty 1997.
in australia they purchased a 25 stake
in qantas
a 24 stake in american airline u.s air
although they tried to buy half but the
us government was worried about foreign
dominance
and wholly acquired brimen airways to
form ba connect on uk domestic routes
they were so prosperous splashing cash
everywhere
by the mid 1990s it could replace most
of its fleet in one go
and bought the boeing 747-400 and the
777
however by 1996 things were starting to
go downhill
along with the uk economy british
airways was hit hard by the strong pound
and high oil prices
and tried to make cuts which were
strongly resisted by the unions
strikes cost hundreds of millions of
pounds to make up for the loss
ba sold its share in u.s air which was
valued at 500 million dollars
to make up for this cutback it tried to
partner with american airlines
however the u.s insisted that ba would
have to sacrifice some landing slots at
heathrow
and the regulatory authorities at the
time also insisted on other esoteric
quirks
such as rules ensuring that frequent
flyers couldn't earn miles on each
other's schemes between the u.s and the
uk
bob ayling's leadership led to a cost
savings of 750 million euros and the
establishment of a budget airline
go but this return to profit didn't last
because only a year later they reported
an 84
drop in profits in its first quarter
alone its worst in seven years
in september 1998 british airways became
a founding member of the one world
airline alliance
but this couldn't stop the slump in
profits by 1999
they were down by half and ba heavily
reduced capacity
canceling boeing 747 orders in favor of
the smaller boeing 777-200 er
and sticking firmly with the airbus a320
for short-haul flights
worse was to come following the crash of
an air france concorde in 2000
which resulted in massively expensive
safety modifications
however concorde was ready to fly again
just before the september 11th attacks
in new york in 2001.
passenger numbers slumped along with
profit and concord was axed in 2003
along with the boeing 747-200 and
several boeing 767 aircraft
several offshoot companies like deutsche
ba were sold
as was the investment in qantas which by
2004
raised 425 million euros
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 airline was sold in 2001. eddington
would make further workforce cuts due to
reduced demand following the september
11th attacks in 2001
and ba sold its stake in qantas in
september 2004.
in july 2008 british airways announced a
merger plan with iberia
another flag carrier airline in the one
world alliance
wherein each airline would retain its
original brand
the agreement was confirmed in april
2010 and in july the european commission
and u.s department of transport
permitted the merger
and began to coordinate transatlantic
routes with the american airlines
on october 6 2010 the alliance between
british
airways american airlines and iberia
formally began operations
the alliance generates an estimated 230
million euros in annual cost saving for
ba
in addition to the 330 million euros
which would be saved by the merger with
iberia
this merger was finalized on the 21st of
january and 2011
resulting in the international airlines
group or the iag
the world's third largest airline in
terms of annual revenue
and the second largest airline group in
europe before 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
british airways is the largest airline
based in the united kingdom in terms of
fleet size
international flights and international
destinations
in a bid to maintain stability british
airways has sold some of its stock
in march 2015 qatar airways purchased a
10
stake in international airlines group
the parent of british airways and iberia
for 1.2 billion euros which they
increased to 25
costing a further 600 million us dollars
in 2020
british airways has also been primed for
takeovers and buying of stakes and
smaller airlines to grow their reach
south africa's komer and denmark's sun
heir of scandinavia have been
franchisees of british airways since
1996.
they obtained a 15 stake in uk regional
airline flybe from the sale of ba
connect in march 2007
which they sold the stake in 2014. from
the very first flight that left london
to paris in 1919
british airways has been on the constant
mission of transporting people
and goods all over the world whether
it's a long haul or short haul
the goal has been to get people to their
destinations in the shortest time
possible
and in the best conditions the airline
has ensured to maintain this over the
years
whether it is collaborating with other
heavyweights or accepting partnerships
or buying stakes british airways has
been on a constant mission of
advancement
and it is that mission that led it to
become the first airline to earn 1
billion dollars in a year on a single
route between new york jfk and london
heathrow
it has been ranked the top most airline
in the world by the most
important metrics and that figure can
only rise
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