British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport.
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and as of 2016 controlled 5 companies remaining of once more than 400.
Virgin Atlantic, a trading name of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited and Virgin Atlantic International Limited, is a British airline with its head office in Crawley, West Sussex, England. The airline was established in 1984 as British Atlantic Airways, and was originally planned by its co-founders Randolph Fields and Alan Hellary to fly between London and the Falkland Islands. Soon after changing the name to Virgin Atlantic Airways, Fields sold his shares in the company to Richard Branson in return for unlimited free travel. The maiden flight from London–Gatwick to Newark took place on 22 June 1984.
British Midland Airways Limited was an airline in the United Kingdom with its head office in Donington Hall in Castle Donington, close to East Midlands Airport, England. The airline flew to destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America and Central Asia from its main hub at London Heathrow Airport, where at its peak it held about 13% of all takeoff and landing slots and operated over 2,000 flights a week. BMI was a member of Star Alliance from 1 July 2000 until 20 April 2012.
David Wilson Boyd Burnside is an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician, who was the member of parliament (MP) for South Antrim from 2001 to 2005.
British Caledonian (BCal) was a private independent airline in the United Kingdom that operated from 1970 until it merged with British Airways in 1988. It operated primarily from London Gatwick Airport in south-east England. BCal was formed by the merger of Caledonian Airways and British United Airways (BUA). It was created as an alternative to the British government-controlled corporation airlines and was described as the "Second Force" in the 1969 Edwards report. The carrier slogan was Let's go British Caledonian in the 1970s and We never forget you have a choice in the 1980s. The BUA takeover enabled Caledonian to realise its long-held ambition to transform itself into a scheduled airline. The merged entity eventually became the UK's foremost independent, international scheduled airline.
In 1997 British Airways (BA) adopted a new livery. One part of this was a newly stylised version of the British Airways "Speedbird" logo, the "Speedmarque", but the major change was the introduction of tail-fin art. Also known as the Utopia, World Tails and world image tailfins, they used art and designs from international artists and other sources to represent communities in countries served by BA's route network. The signature of the artist was carried near the design on the tail.
Sir Roderick Ian Eddington is an Australian businessman.
Robert John Ayling, also known as Bob Ayling, is a British retired lawyer and businessman who has worked with a variety of high-profile companies and organisations. From 1996 to 2000, he was the CEO of British Airways. He also served as chairman of Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service, Dŵr Cymru, and Dyson. Ayling was appointed a CBE in the Queen's 2018 Birthday Honors List.
CityFlyer Express was a short-haul regional airline with its head office in the Iain Stewart Centre next to London Gatwick Airport in England.
Colin Marsh Marshall, Baron Marshall of Knightsbridge, was a British businessman and member of the House of Lords.
Mike Bannister is an airline pilot. He is best known as the Chief Pilot of British Airways' Concorde fleet, a post which he held from 1995 until its withdrawal from service in 2003.
Losing My Virginity is the autobiography of the British businessman Richard Branson. Published in 1998, it was later followed by other biographical books by Branson, including Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur (2008) and The Virgin Way: How to Listen, Learn, Laugh and Lead (2014).
Victor Hasson, also known as Vico was a Belgian businessman who started multiple companies.
British Airways (BA), the United Kingdom's national airline, was formed in 1974 with the merger of the two largest UK airlines, British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and British European Airways (BEA), and including also two smaller regional airlines, Cambrian Airways and Northeast Airlines. The merger was the completion of a consolidation process started in 1971 with the establishment of the British Airways Board, a body created by the British government to control the operations and finances of BOAC and BEA, which initially continued to exist as separate entities.
Damien McCrystal became the first City editor of The Sun, News International’s daily tabloid, in September 1987 after Robert Worcester, the founder of Market & Opinion Research International told Rupert Murdoch, the owner of News International, that the wave of utility company privatisations in the UK had turned one-quarter of The Sun’s readers into share-owners.
David Martin Tait OBE is a Scottish-born commercial airline executive, brand/marketing consultant, Washington Post best-selling author and syndicated travel columnist. Best known for his work as one of the architects of the Virgin Atlantic Airways business plan, he was one of the nascent company's first employees. During his career, Tait has served in senior executive and advisory positions for a number of airlines and travel-related companies. He is co-founder of online training company Autism Double-Checked.
Virgin Atlantic Little Red was a short-lived British domestic airline subsidiary owned by Virgin Atlantic.
The "Dirty Tricks" scandal was a series of concerted campaigns by British Airways (BA) in the 1990s seeking to undermine their rival, Virgin Atlantic. Concerned by the prospect of an upcoming challenger, Lord King, Chairman of British Airways, told his chief executive "do something about Branson". The ensuing campaign involved BA representatives impersonating Virgin employees and calling up Virgin customers to try to get them to switch their flights to BA as well as hacking computers to gain access to insider information on Virgin's flights.
Concorde began scheduled flights with British Airways (BA) and Air France (AF) on 21 January 1976. AF flew its last commercial flight on 30 May 2003 with BA retiring its Concorde fleet on 24 October 2003.
