British Airways

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 is the first passenger airline to have generated more than US$1 billion on a single air route in a year (from 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018 on the New York-JFK – London-Heathrow route).

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.