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.
Concorde is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France and the UK signed a treaty establishing the development project on 29 November 1962, as the programme cost was estimated at £70 million . Construction of the six prototypes began in February 1965, and the first flight took off from Toulouse on 2 March 1969. The market was predicted for 350 aircraft, and the manufacturers received up to 100 option orders from many major airlines. On 9 October 1975, it received its French Certificate of Airworthiness, and from the UK CAA on 5 December.
Heathrow Airport, called London Airport until 1966, is the main international airport serving London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system. The airport is owned and operated by Heathrow Airport Holdings, owned mostly by Qatar Investment Authority, Public Investment Fund and CDPQ. In 2023, Heathrow was the busiest airport in Europe, the fourth-busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic and the second-busiest airport in the world by international passenger traffic. As of 2023, Heathrow is the airport with the most international connections in the world.
Qantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. It is the largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations in Australia and Oceania. Qantas is the world's third-oldest airline by foundation date and the oldest airline in the English-speaking world — being founded in November 1920. Qantas is a founding member of the Oneworld airline alliance.
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 after disagreements with Richard Branson over the management of the company. 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.
Oneworld is a global airline alliance consisting of 13 member airlines. It was founded on 1 February 1999. The alliance's stated objective is to be the first choice airline alliance for the world's frequent international travellers. Its headquarters have been located in Fort Worth, Texas since December 2022.
Loganair is a Scottish airline based at Glasgow Airport near Paisley, Scotland. Branded as Scotland's Airline, it is the largest regional airline in the UK by passenger numbers and fleet size.
British Mediterranean Airways Limited, stylized as B|MED, was an airline with operations from London Heathrow Airport in England. It operated scheduled services as a British Airways franchise to 17 destinations in 16 countries throughout Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia from London Heathrow. In February 2007, the airline was purchased by BMI, and continued as a British Airways franchise until the night of 27 October 2007, when it was absorbed into, and rebranded as, bmi.
The Speedbird is the stylised emblem of a bird in flight designed in 1932 by Theyre Lee-Elliott as the corporate logo for Imperial Airways. It became a design classic and was used by the airline and its successors – British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and British Airways – for 52 years. The term "Speedbird" is still the call sign for British Airways.
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.
Aegean Airlines S.A. is the flag carrier of Greece and the largest Greek airline by total number of passengers carried, by number of destinations served, and by fleet size. A Star Alliance member since June 2010, it operates scheduled and charter services from Athens and Thessaloniki to other major Greek, European and Middle Eastern destinations. Its main hubs are Athens International Airport in Athens, Macedonia International Airport in Thessaloniki and Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus. It also uses other Greek airports as bases, some of which are seasonal. It has its head office in Kifisia, a suburb of Athens.
SUN-AIR of Scandinavia A/S, usually shortened to SUN-AIR, is a Danish regional airline headquartered in Billund, with its main base at Billund Airport. It operates scheduled services as a franchise of British Airways using their name and corporate design as British Airways - operated by SUN-AIR of Scandinavia A/S. The airline also offers charter flights, air taxi services, specialist aerial work and aircraft brokerage services.
Twenty Concorde aircraft were built: two prototypes, two pre-production aircraft, two development aircraft and 14 production aircraft for commercial service. With the exception of two of the production aircraft, all are preserved, mostly in museums. One aircraft was scrapped in 1994, and another was destroyed in the Air France Flight 4590 crash in 2000.
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.
Pokémon Jet refers to a number of aircraft operated by Japanese airline All Nippon Airways in a promotional Pokémon livery. The exteriors of the aircraft were painted with pictures of various Pokémon and the interiors were decorated with a Pokémon theme. Though the use of these liveries by ANA ended in 2016, the scheme has since been revived, this time with Solaseed Air in 2020, and Air Do and Skymark Airlines in 2021. In 2022, Scoot became the first non-Japanese airline to introduce a Pokémon Jet, followed by China Airlines and T'way Air later that year. In 2023, ANA resumed producing Pokémon Jet liveries for their aircraft after a 7 year absence.
International Consolidated Airlines Group S.A., trading as International Airlines Group and usually shortened to IAG, is an English-Spanish multinational airline holding company with its registered office in Madrid, Spain, and its corporate headquarters in London, England. It was formed in January 2011 after a merger agreement between British Airways and Iberia, the flag carriers of the United Kingdom and Spain respectively, when British Airways and Iberia became wholly owned subsidiaries of IAG. British Airways shareholders were given 55% of the shares in the new company.
British Airways operates a fleet of Airbus and Boeing aircraft. It operates a single-aisle fleet of Airbus aircraft, including the Airbus A320-200 and the Airbus A320neo. It also operates a twin-aisle aircraft fleet of the Airbus A350-1000, Airbus A380, Boeing 777 and 787.
Virgin Atlantic Little Red was a short-lived British domestic airline subsidiary owned by Virgin Atlantic.
The Big Painting Challenge is a television programme first broadcast on BBC One on 22 February 2015. It is a contest in the style of The Great British Bake Off but with the craft of painting rather than baking.
