Fifty years of British Airways: the definitive timeline

British Airways started flying 50 years ago this month. The state-owned airline was formed from an amalgamation of BEA, BOAC, Cambrian and Northeast. Its main base, then as now, was London Heathrow. BA is declining to comment on its half-centenary, so we have compiled a timeline on the airline’s behalf.

The aviation industry in 1974 was basically a cosy cartel, with high-cost airlines charging astronomical fares. Over the decades, much has changed in aviation, with fares plummeting, options blossoming and safety increasing to an extraordinary level.

The British Airways route network was very different, as airline industry executive Jonathan Hinkles discovered from the first-ever BA timetable.

“In 1974 the ‘world’s favourite airline’ actually did fly around the world, although it probably wasn’t a hugely economic exercise to do so, even then,” he says. “Three times a week, the BA591 westabout VC10 set off from Heathrow via New York JFK, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Nadi and Sydney to Melbourne. Another VC10 set off eastabout to Melbourne – typically via Frankfurt, Doha, Calcutta and Singapore. Some excursion: the VC10 which left London at 1pm on Tuesday would arrive back at Heathrow from this epic trip at 9.50pm on Friday evening.”