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British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations. British Airways was considered the largest UK airline by passenger numbers from its creation in 1974 until 2008, when it was displaced by low-cost rival EasyJet. Since its inception, British Airways has been centred at its main hub at London Heathrow Airport, with a second major hub at London Gatwick Airport. The British Airways Board was formed in 1971 to control the policy and finances of the two large London-based airline corporations, British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and British European Airways Corporation (BEA) with two much smaller regional airlines, Cambrian Airways and Northeast Airlines. British Airways acquired the supersonic Concorde in 1976, operating it on transatlantic services. The same year it assumed sole operation of international flights to North America and Southeast Asia from rival British Caledonian. The formation of Virgin Atlantic Airways in 1984 began a tense rivalry, which led to "one of the most bitter and protracted libel actions in aviation history". Under the leadership of Chairman Sir John King and CEO Colin Marshall, British Airways was privatised in February 1987, almost thirteen years after its formation, and effected the controversial takeover of British Caledonian in July 1987. Following privatisation, British Airways entered a period of rapid and unprecedented growth, leading to the use of the slogan "The World's Favourite Airline", and dominated its domestic rivals during the early 1990s. Faced with increased competition and higher costs in the mid-1990s, CEO Bob Ayling led a restructuring effort, leading to trade union clashes; the carrier also invested in regional European airlines, courted international airline partnerships, and attempted a controversial ethnic livery rebranding campaign. In the early 2000s (decade), CEO Rod Eddington implemented further cost cuts, the retirement of Concorde, and the removal of ethnic liveries. Under Willie Walsh, who became CEO in 2005, British Airways faced a price-fixing scandal, moved its primary hub to Heathrow Terminal 5, and experienced threats of industrial action, leading to a strike in March 2010. On 8 April 2010, it was confirmed that British Airways and Iberia Airlines had agreed to a merger, forming the International Airlines Group, although BA would continue to operate under its current brand.〔 The combined airline will become the world's third-largest carrier (after Delta Air Lines and American Airlines) in terms of annual revenue. ==Origins and formation== Anne Cornes, Lucy Simmonds and Angela Love all worked at Speedbird House in 1969 as programmer/analysts. On 31 March 1924, Britain's four pioneer airlines that started up in the immediate post war period—Handley Page Transport, British Marine Air Navigation Co Ltd, Daimler Airways and Instone Air Line Ltd—joined together to form Imperial Airways Limited,〔Millward (2008), p. 83〕 developing routes throughout the British Empire to India, some parts of Africa and later to Canberra, Australia. Meanwhile, a number of smaller UK air transport companies had begun operating, and by 1935 many of these had merged to form the original privately owned British Airways Ltd.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=British Airways PLC – Company History )〕 Following a government review, Imperial Airways and British Airways were nationalised in November 1939 to form the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC).〔〔Woodley (2004), p. 10〕 Post-war, BOAC continued to operate the majority of long-haul services in Britain, other than routes to South America; these were flown by British South American Airways, which was merged back into BOAC in 1949.〔Beith (2004)〕 Continental European and domestic flights were flown by a new nationalised airline, British European Airways Corporation (BEA), which compulsorily took over the scheduled services of existing UK independent airlines.〔 On 2 May 1952, BOAC became the world's first airline to operate jet airliners; the inaugural flight with the de Havilland Comet 1 was from London to Johannesburg.〔Woodley (2004), p. 117〕 However, the Comet's service introduction was plagued by structural problems and accidents,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Sabotage ruled out )〕 leading to its withdrawal in 1954 and replacement with the upgraded Comet 4 models in 1958.〔 In 1967 the government established a committee of inquiry into Civil Aviation under Sir Ronald Edwards, the Edwards Committee reported in 1969 and one of the recommendations of the Edwards committee was the formation of a National Air Holding Board to control finances and polices of the two corporations.〔 The recommendation was enacted in 1971 with the passing of the Civil Aviation Act 1971 which formed a British Airways Board to control all the activities of BOAC and BEA; including the newly formed BEA Airtours subsidiary, targeting the emerging package holiday business.〔 In 1972 the BOAC and BEA managements were combined under the newly formed British Airways Board, with the physical operations of the separate airlines coming together as British Airways on 1 April 1974, under the guidance of David Nicolson as Chairman of the Board.〔Doganis (2006), p. 224〕 At the time it was the biggest merger in the aviation industry,〔By some criteria. By passenger-miles (and maybe by passengers) the merged airline was smaller than Delta when it merged Northeast in 1972.〕 creating the world's largest network of routes for the new unified company to harness.〔Hanlon (1999), pp. 227–8〕 In 1975, British Airways was headquartered in the Victoria Terminal in London. Its international division was headquartered at the Speedbird House by Heathrow Airport, while its European division was headquartered at Bealine House, Ruislip, Middlesex. The regional division was headquartered in Ruford House, Hounslow.〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=''Flight International'' )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of British Airways」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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