British Airways

The airline has British Airways Cityexpress, Duo Airways, and Loganair as its subsidiaries.

British Airways is based at London Heathrow Airport. It also has a commanding presence at Gatwick. BA has succeeded in dominating Heathrow to the point that the airport is commonly referred to as Fortress Heathrow within both the airline and its competitors. As an incumbent airline, BA had grandfather rights to around 36% of takeoff and landing slots at Heathrow, many of which are used for the lucrative trans-Atlantic market. Some competitors, such as Virgin Atlantic, bmi British Midland and United Airlines, assert that this stifles competition and some political think tanks recommend an auction of slots. In recent years British Airways has been buying slots from other airlines including United Airlines, DAT, Virgin Atlantic, and Swissair, and now owns about 40% of slots at Heathrow.

British Airways was an operator of the famous Aerospatiale-BAC Concorde supersonic airliner. BA had a daily Concorde service between London and New York. It was announced (on April 10, 2003) that, after October 24, 2003, they would cease scheduled services with Concorde, due to depressed passenger numbers and increasing maintenance costs. The last day of its Saturday-only London Heathrow to Barbados Concorde flight was on August 30, 2003.

British Airways aircraft use the Airline call sign "Speedbird" in ATC radio transmissions. The airline's IATA designator is BA. British Airways is a founding member of the oneworld airline alliance.

Other facts of interest

• British Airways and Air France were the only two Concorde operators.
• British Airways is the largest operator of the Boeing 747-400, with 56 aircraft.
• During the 1990s, British Airways repainted (and re-named) many of their airplanes in colour schemes relating to some of the countries they fly to.

External links

• British Airways website

Referenced By