The heritage we celebrate
& love

Our real-world counterpart has been a part of civil aviation since it was conceived in the early 1900s. You can trace their first commercial flight back to 1919, where Aircraft Transport and Travel Limited (AT&T) began the world’s first scheduled flight from London to Paris. In 1924, Imperial Airways was formed by joining multiple British aviation companies together, and they pioneered routes all over Europe, Africa and India as the governments chosen airline.

Over the next 5 decades, British aviation evolved alongside the innovations of the aviation industry as a whole. The formation of state owned British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) & British European Airways (BEA) are the most noteworthy events. These airlines broke many firsts in aviation and created routes worldwide, changing the way the British public travelled both for pleasure and business.

In 1974, the British government completed a 3-year initiative to merge the above airlines into one, thus forming British Airways. The airline soon became a world phenomenon, when in 1976 they adopted the Concorde, offering supersonic flights.

By 1988, the airline’s image had gone through a visual re-design by Landor Associates and created a home at Heathrow Terminal 4. It was privatised under the leadership of Chairman Lord King, and had acquired the Gatwick based British Caledonian Airways. These changes paved the way for the BA brand we know and love.

In the late 1990s, British Airways started to become the airline it is today. The Chatham Dockyard livery (initially incorporating designs from around the world on the tail) was introduced. A fleet of Airbus A320 family aircraft were added for short haul operations, a trend that is still active today. In the early 2000’s, the modern aircraft we now know all so well were added to the fleet. Boeing 777’s, 787’s and Airbus A380’s. After 100 years of rich history, BA has become an airline to be respected, idolised and loved.