British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

state-owned airline created in 1939 by the merger of

Imperial Airways Imperial Airways was the early British commercial long-range airline, operating from 1924 to 1939 and principally serving the British Empire routes to South Africa, India, Australia and the Far East, including Malaya and Hong Kong. Passengers ...

and

British Airways Ltd British Airways Ltd was a British airline company operating in Europe in the period 1935–1939. It was formed in 1935 by the merger of Spartan Air Lines Ltd, United Airways Ltd (no relation to the US carrier United Airlines), and Hillman's A ...

. It continued operating overseas services throughout World War II. After the passing of the Civil Aviation Act 1946, European and South American services passed to two further state-owned airlines,

British European Airways British European Airways (BEA), formally British European Airways Corporation, was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974. BEA operated to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East from airports around the United Kingdom. The a ...

(BEA) and British South American Airways (BSAA). BOAC absorbed BSAA in 1949, but BEA continued to operate British domestic and European routes for the next quarter century. A 1971

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

merged BOAC and BEA, effective 31 March 1974, forming today's

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers ...

. For most of its history its main rival was

Pan Am Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...

History

War years

On 24 November 1939, BOAC was created by Act of Parliament to become the British state airline, formed from the merger of

and

. The companies had been operating together since war was declared on 3 September 1939, when their operations were evacuated from the London area to

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. On 1 April 1940, BOAC started operations as a single company. Following the Fall of France (22 June 1940), BOAC aircraft kept wartime Britain connected with its colonies and the allied world, often under enemy fire, and initially with desperate shortages of long-range aircraft. During the war, the airline was sometimes loosely referred to as 'British Airways', and aircraft and equipment were marked with combinations of that title and/or the

Speedbird 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 C ...

symbol and/or the

Union Flag The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

BOAC Boeing Model 314A Clipper on Lagos Lagoon

BOAC inherited Imperial Airways' flying boat services to

British colonies A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony administered by The Crown within the British Empire. There was usually a Governor, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local Coun ...

in Africa and Asia, but with the wartime loss of the route over

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

these were replaced by the expatriate ' Horseshoe Route', with Cairo as a hub, and Sydney and

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

as end destinations. Linking Britain to the Horseshoe Route taxed the resources of BOAC. Although

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

denied access,

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

welcomed BOAC's civilian aircraft at Lisbon. However, the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

route from Lisbon or

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

to Egypt via

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

risked enemy attack, so the long

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...

route had to be employed (over-water via Lisbon, Bathurst,

Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and po ...

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 fo ...

), then by landplane to

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum ( ; ar, الخرطوم, Al-Khurṭūm, din, Kaartuɔ̈m) is the capital of Sudan. With a population of 5,274,321, its metropolitan area is the largest in Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing n ...

on the Horseshoe Route. The

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

routes had contained landplane sectors, but the

Armstrong Whitworth Ensign The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.27 Ensign was a British four-engine monoplane airliner and the largest airliner built in Britain during the Interwar period.Tapper, 1988, p.237 The British airline Imperial Airways requested tenders for a large mon ...

and de Havilland Albatross ordered to replace the Handley Page HP.42 'Heracles' biplanes had proved disappointing, leaving the

Short Empire The Short Empire was a medium-range four-engined monoplane flying boat, designed and developed by Short Brothers during the 1930s to meet the requirements of the growing commercial airline sector, with a particular emphasis upon its usefulness ...

flying boats as the backbone of the wartime fleet. (Only a handful of these had long range tanks but many were eventually upgraded with larger tankage and operated at overload weights.) The Empire flying-boats were at their limit on the 1,900-mile Lisbon-Bathurst sector. Refuelling at

Las Palmas Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife), the most populous city in the auto ...

in the Canary Islands was permitted by Spain for some Empire flying-boat flights in 1940 and 1941. In 1941 longer range

Consolidated Catalina The Consolidated PBY Catalina is a flying boat and amphibious aircraft that was produced in the 1930s and 1940s. In Canadian service it was known as the Canso. It was one of the most widely used seaplanes of World War II. Catalinas served wit ...

Boeing 314 The Boeing 314 Clipper was an American long-range flying boat produced by Boeing from 1938 to 1941. One of the largest aircraft of its time, it had the range to cross the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. For its wing, Boeing re-used the design from ...

As (and later converted

Short Sunderland The Short S.25 Sunderland is a British flying boat patrol bomber, developed and constructed by Short Brothers for the Royal Air Force (RAF). The aircraft took its service name from the town (latterly, city) and port of Sunderland in North Ea ...

s) were introduced to guarantee non-stop Lisbon to Bathurst sectors (thus eliminating the need to refuel at Las Palmas). BOAC's flying-boat base for Britain was shifted from

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

to Poole,

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

, but many flights used

Foynes Foynes (; ) is a town and major port in County Limerick in the midwest of Ireland, located at the edge of hilly land on the southern bank of the Shannon Estuary. The population of the town was 520 as of the 2016 census. Foynes's role as seap ...

Éire () is Irish for "Ireland", the name of both an island in the North Atlantic and the sovereign state of the Republic of Ireland which governs 84% of the island's landmass. The latter is distinct from Northern Ireland, which covers the remaind ...

(Ireland), reached by shuttle flight from Whitchurch. Use of Foynes reduced the chance of enemy interception or friendly fire incidents over the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

. BOAC had large bases at

, Asmara,

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

and a pilots' school at

Soroti Soroti is a city in Eastern Region of Uganda. It is the main City, commercial, and administrative center in curved out of Soroti District, one of the nine administrative districts in the Teso sub-region. Soroti City was immediately approved ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

. Experimental flights had been made across the North Atlantic pre-war by Imperial Airways Empire flying-boats with improved fuel capacity, some using in flight refuelling, culminating in a series of mail/courier flights made by BOAC's ''Clare'' and ''Clyde'' to La Guardia in camouflage during the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

. These were BOAC's first New York services. In 1941, BOAC was tasked with operating a 'Return Ferry Service' from Prestwick to Montreal to reposition ferry pilots who had flown American-built bombers from Canada, and they were provided with RAF Consolidated Liberators with a very basic passenger conversion. This was the first sustained North Atlantic landplane service. By September 1944 BOAC had made 1,000 transatlantic crossings. In late 1942, the new hard-surface airport at Lisbon permitted the use of civil registered Liberators to North and West Africa and Egypt. Arguably, BOAC's most famous wartime route was the ' Ball-bearing Run' from

Leuchars Leuchars (pronounced or ; gd, Luachar "rushes") is a small town and parish near the north-east coast of Fife in Scotland. The civil parish has a population of 5,754 (in 2011) Census of Scotland 2011, Table KS101SC – Usually Resident Popula ...

to Stockholm ( Bromma) in

neutral Neutral or neutrality may refer to: Mathematics and natural science Biology * Neutral organisms, in ecology, those that obey the unified neutral theory of biodiversity Chemistry and physics * Neutralization (chemistry), a chemical reaction in ...

Sweden. Initially flown with Lockheed 14s and

Lockheed Hudson The Lockheed Hudson is a light bomber and coastal reconnaissance aircraft built by the American Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. It was initially put into service by the Royal Air Force shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War and p ...

transports, the unsuitable

Armstrong Whitworth Whitley The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley was a British medium bomber aircraft of the 1930s. It was one of three twin-engined, front line medium bomber types that were in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) at the outbreak of the Second World ...

"civilianised" bombers were also used between 9 August and 24 October 1942 ("Civilianised" meant that all the armaments and unnecessary guns and turrets had been removed, a legal requirement for operating a commercial civilian service to a neutral country). The much faster civilian registered de Havilland Mosquitoes were introduced by BOAC in 1943. The significance of the ball-bearings is debatable, but these night flights were an important diplomatic gesture of support for neutral Sweden which had two DC-3s shot down on its own service to Britain. Other types used to Sweden included Lockheed Lodestars, Consolidated Liberators, and the sole Curtiss CW-20 (C-46 prototype) which BOAC had purchased; these types had more payload, and some had the range to avoid the German-controlled

Skagerrak The Skagerrak (, , ) is a strait running between the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, the southeast coast of Norway and the west coast of Sweden, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea area through the Danish Straits to the Baltic Sea. T ...

direct route. Between 1939 and 1945 6,000 passengers were transported by BOAC between Stockholm and Great Britain.

Early post-war operations

At the end of the war, BOAC's fleet consisted of Lockheed Lodestars, lend-lease Douglas DC-3s, Liberators, converted Sunderlands, and the first

Avro Lancastrian The Avro 691 Lancastrian was a Canadian and British passenger and mail transport aircraft of the 1940s and 1950s developed from the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber. The Lancaster was named after Lancaster, Lancashire; a Lancastrian is an inhabita ...

s, Avro Yorks, and Handley Page Haltons. The Short Empire, Short S.26 and Boeing 314A flying boats, plus the AW Ensigns, were due to be withdrawn. The corporation's aircraft, bases and personnel were scattered around the world, and it took a decade to reorganise it into an efficient unit at

Heathrow Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others bei ...

. In 1943, the Brabazon Committee had laid down a set of civil aircraft transport types for the British aircraft industry to produce, but these were to be several years in coming, and particularly in the case of the tailwheel Avro Tudor, not what BOAC wanted. Since 1941, the advanced pressurised

Lockheed Constellation The Lockheed Constellation ("Connie") is a propeller-driven, four-engined airliner built by Lockheed Corporation starting in 1943. The Constellation series was the first pressurized-cabin civil airliner series to go into widespread use. Its press ...

had been under development, and in 1946 BOAC was permitted to use dollars to purchase an initial fleet of five for the prestigious North Atlantic route (there were no equivalent British types available). Throughout the whole of BOAC's existence, the argument over buying American or (often delayed) British products continued, and Parliament, the press, British manufacturers and the unions accused BOAC management of only wanting American aircraft. Whilst the major world airlines abandoned flying-boats at the end of WWII, BOAC continued with theirs until 1950, and even introduced the new Short Solent on the leisurely Nile route to South Africa. In 1948, the unpressurised Yorks were still operating passenger services as far afield as

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper h ...

(Kenya), Accra (Gold Coast, later Ghana),

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

and

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

(India), and the type continued to operate freight schedules until late 1957. After its first six Lockheed 049 Constellations, BOAC had to use some ingenuity to increase its Constellation fleet. In 1947, Aerlínte Éireann in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

bought five new Lockheed 749 Constellations, and prepared to launch a transatlantic service with assistance and crew-training from Captains O. P. Jones and J. C. Kelly-Rogers of BOAC. The project was abandoned in February 1948, and BOAC were able to buy the almost new 749s without dollar expenditure four months later. This enabled BOAC to serve Australia with Constellations from 1949. A total of 25 Constellations passed through the BOAC fleet, including 12 749As obtained from Capital Airlines in the mid-1950s, with BOAC's older 049s in part exchange. BOAC was also permitted to spend dollars on six new Boeing 377 Stratocruisers for its key transatlantic routes from October 1949, offering a double-deck non-stop eastbound service from New York City to London Airport (later Heathrow). However, because of the prevailing westerly winds, the westbound flights needed re-fuelling at Shannon and Gander before reaching New York. Another four Stratocruisers were taken over from a frustrated SAS order and seven were bought secondhand in the mid-1950s. The

Handley Page Hermes The Handley Page HP.81 Hermes was a civilian airliner designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Handley Page. The Hermes was developed during the 1940s in parallel with the closely related Handley Page Hastings military transp ...

and Canadair DC-4M ''Argonaut'' joined the BOAC fleet between 1949 and 1950, replacing the last of the non-pressurised types on passenger services. When service entry of the Bristol Britannia was delayed in late 1956, BOAC was permitted to purchase ten new

Douglas DC-7 The Douglas DC-7 is an American transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1953 to 1958. A derivative of the DC-6, it was the last major piston engine-powered transport made by Douglas, being developed shortly after the earl ...

Cs. These long-range aircraft enabled BOAC to operate non-stop westbound flights from London and Manchester to New York and other US East Coast destinations, in competition with DC-7Cs of

and Lockheed Super Constellations of Trans World Airlines (TWA). This was the first purchase of aircraft direct from the Douglas Aircraft Company in BOAC's history.

Introduction of jets

In May 1952 BOAC was the first airline to introduce a

passenger jet A jet airliner or jetliner is an airliner powered by jet engines (passenger jet aircraft). Airliners usually have two or four jet engines; three-engined designs were popular in the 1970s but are less common today. Airliners are commonly clas ...

into airline service. This was the

de Havilland Comet The de Havilland DH.106 Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland in the United Kingdom, the Comet 1 prototype first flew in 1949. It featured an aerodynamically clean design with four ...

which flew via Nairobi to Johannesburg and via the Far East to Tokyo. All Comet 1 aircraft were grounded in April 1954 after four Comets crashed, the second last being a BOAC aircraft at altitude. Examination of the wreckage recovered from the Mediterranean sea-bed and observation of a sample fuselage in a pressurisation test-tank at Farnborough revealed that the repeated pressurisation / depressurisation cycles of airline operation could cause fatigue cracks in the thin aluminium alloy skin of the Comet leading to the skins ripping away explosively at altitude and disintegration of the aircraft. Later jet airliners including the revised Comet 4 were designed to be fail-safe: in the event of, for example, a skin-failure due to cracking the damage would be localised and not catastrophic. In October 1958 BOAC operated the first transatlantic jet service with the larger and longer-range Comet 4. In the 1950s turbine powered airliners were developing rapidly, and the Comet and the seriously delayed Bristol Britannia were soon rendered obsolescent by the flight of the swept-wing Boeing 367–80 (707 prototype) in 1954. In 1953 Vickers had started building the swept wing VC-7/V-1000 with

Rolls-Royce Conway The Rolls-Royce RB.80 Conway was the first turbofan engine to enter service. Development started at Rolls-Royce in the 1940s, but the design was used only briefly, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, before other turbofan designs replaced it. ...

turbofan The turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a portmanteau of "turbine" and "fan": the ''turbo'' portion refers to a gas turbine engine which achieves mechanic ...

engines, but BOAC short-sightedly decided the Britannia and Comet 4 would be adequate for its purposes, and when the military version of the V-1000 was cancelled in 1955 the 75% complete prototype was scrapped. In October 1956 BOAC ordered 15 Boeing 707s with Conway engines (briefly the most economical commercial engine option). They entered service in 1960. (The British airworthiness authorities insisted on tail-fin modifications which Boeing made available to all 707 users.) Sir

Giles Guthrie Sir Giles Connop McEachern Guthrie, 2nd Baronet, (21 March 1916 – 31 December 1979) was an English aviator, merchant banker and later, an airline industry executive, serving as the chairman and chief executive of the state owned airline Britis ...

, who took charge of BOAC in 1964, preferred Boeing aircraft for economic reasons, and indeed BOAC began turning a profit in the late 1960s. After a row in

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

the government instructed BOAC to purchase 17

Vickers VC10 The Vickers VC10 is a mid-sized, narrow-body long-range British jet airliner designed and built by Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd and first flown at Brooklands, Surrey, in 1962. The airliner was designed to operate on long-distance route ...

aircraft from a 30-aircraft order which Guthrie had cancelled. The Standard VC10 had higher operating costs than the 707, largely due to BOAC's requirement at the design stage for the aircraft to have excellent

hot and high In aviation, hot and high is a condition of low air density due to high ambient temperature and high airport elevation. Air density decreases with increasing temperature and altitude. The lower air density reduces the power output from the airc ...

performance for Commonwealth (African/Asian) routes, but the larger Super VC10 was a success with American passengers on the North Atlantic and was profitable. BOAC Boeing 747-136 landing at Heathrow

The next major order of Boeing aircraft was for 11 Boeing 747-100s. On 22 April 1970 BOAC received its first 747, but the aircraft did not enter commercial service until 14 April 1971 due to BOAC's inability to settle crewing and pay rates with the

British Air Line Pilots' Association The British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA) is the professional association and registered trade union for UK pilots. BALPA represents the views and interests of pilots, campaigning on contractual, legal and health issues affecting its m ...

. BOAC's successor British Airways later became the largest Boeing customer outside North America.

Merger with BEA

The first attempt at a merger of BOAC with BEA arose in 1953 out of inconclusive attempts between the two airlines to negotiate air rights through the British colony of

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

. The chairman of BOAC,

Miles Thomas (William) Miles Webster Thomas, Baron Thomas DFC (2 March 1897 – 8 February 1980),Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

, and he had backing for his proposal from the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time,

Rab Butler Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), also known as R. A. Butler and familiarly known from his initials as Rab, was a prominent British Conservative Party politician. ''The Times'' obituary c ...

. However, opposition from the Treasury blocked the idea, and an agreement was reached instead to allow BEA to serve

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, and in return to leave all routes east and south of Cyprus to BOAC. Paradoxically, through its effective control of

Cyprus Airways Cyprus Airways (Greek: Κυπριακές Αερογραμμές) is the flag carrier airline of Cyprus, based at Larnaca International Airport. It commenced operations on 1 June 2017. History Cyprus Airways resumed operations in 2016 after win ...

, BEA was able to continue to serve destinations ceded to BOAC, including Beirut and Cairo by using Cyprus Airways as its proxy. However, it was only following the recommendations of the 1969 Edwards Report that a new British Airways Board, combining BEA and BOAC, was constituted on 1 April 1972. This event coincided with the establishment of the Civil Aviation Authority, the UK's new, unified regulator for the air transport industry. BOAC would have become one of the first operators of the

Concorde The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a retired Franco-British supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France an ...

, had it not merged to become British Airways. BA's Concordes carried registrations of G-BOAA to G-BOAG. The first Concorde delivered to British Airways was registered G-BOAC.

Other BOAC companies

BOAC Associated Companies

BOAC held shareholdings in a number of other airlines operating in several parts of the

British Commonwealth The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...

through a subsidiary, BOAC Associated Companies. These included

Aden Airways Aden Airways was a subsidiary of British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) based in Aden. It was in operation from 1949 to 1967. History In 1947, a proposal to form an airline in Aden using a pair of Bristol Wayfarers did not materialize. An ...

, Bahamas Airways, Fiji Airways,

Ghana Airways Ghana Airways Limited was the flag carrier of Ghana, with its main base of operation and hub at Kotoka International Airport in Accra. The airline ceased operations in 2004, although plans were discussed to revive it in 2020 in partnership wit ...

Gulf Aviation Gulf Aviation was a Bahrain-based charter and scheduled airline that evolved into Gulf Air. Its formal incorporation in 1950 was followed by constant change as the Persian Gulf economies developed. The airline operation became a subsidiary compa ...

and

Nigeria Airways Nigeria Airways Ltd., more commonly known as Nigeria Airways, was a Nigerian airline. The company was founded in 1958 after the dissolution of West African Airways Corporation (WAAC). It held the name West African Airways Corporation Nigeria ( ...

. In the late 1950s BOAC Associated Companies was declared to have holdings in eighteen companies.

BOAC-Cunard Ltd

In 1962, BOAC and

Cunard Cunard () is a British shipping and cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its three ships have been registered in Hamilton, Berm ...

formed BOAC-Cunard Ltd to operate scheduled services to North America, the Caribbean and South America. BOAC provided 70% of the new company's capital and eight Boeing 707s. The independent Cunard Eagle Airways, of which Cunard held a 60% shareholding, provided two more 707s. BOAC-Cunard leased any spare capacity to BOAC which could use it to supplement the main BOAC fleet at peak demand, and in a reciprocal arrangement BOAC would provide capacity to BOAC-Cunard on some operations when it had a shortfall. The effect of this arrangement was to remove competition on western routes. The operation was dissolved in 1966.

Destinations

The following is an incomplete list of destinations historically served by BOAC: * Abadan –

Abadan International Airport Abadan International Airport is situated 12 kilometers away from the city of Abadan, Iran. History During World War II, Abadan Airport was a major logistics center for Lend-Lease aircraft being sent to the Soviet Union by the United States. ...

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

–

Aberdeen Airport Aberdeen International Airport ( gd, Port-adhair Eadar-nàiseanta Obar Dheathain) is an international airport, located in the Dyce suburb of Aberdeen, Scotland, approximately northwest of Aberdeen city centre. A total of just under 3.1&nbs ...

* Abu Dhabi –

Al Bateen Executive Airport Al Bateen Executive Airport ( ar, مطار البطين, ) is a dedicated business jet international airport located south east of the city centre of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The airport is on the Abu Dhabi island. Other tenants include ...

* Accra –

Kotoka International Airport Kotoka International Airport is an international airport in Accra, the capital of Ghana. The airport is operated by Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL), which has its offices on the airport property. It is the sole international airport in ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

–

Adelaide Airport Adelaide Airport , also known as Adelaide International Airport, is the principal airport of Adelaide, South Australia and the fifth-busiest airport in Australia, servicing 8.5 million passengers in the financial year ending 30 June 201 ...

* Aden –

Aden International Airport Aden International Airport is an international airport in Aden, Yemen and the oldest airport in the Arabian peninsula. Prior to its use as a civil air facility, the aerodrome was known as RAF Khormaksar, which opened in 1917 and closed as an ...

– Alexandria International Airport * Amman – Amman Civil Airport *

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

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Schiphol Airport Amsterdam Airport Schiphol , known informally as Schiphol Airport ( nl, Luchthaven Schiphol, ), is the main international airport of the Netherlands. It is located southwest of Amsterdam, in the municipality of Haarlemmermeer in the province ...

* Anchorage –

Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport is a major airport in the U.S. state of Alaska, located southwest of downtown Anchorage. The airport is named for Ted Stevens, a U.S. senator from Alaska in office from 1968 to 2009. It is include ...

* Antigua – Coolidge International Airport * Arak – Arak Airport * Asmara –

Yohannes IV International Airport Asmara International Airport, , is the international airport of Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. It is the country's largest airport and, as of 2017, the only one receiving regularly scheduled services. History The airport was constructed by th ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

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Auckland Airport Auckland Airport is the largest and busiest airport in New Zealand, with over 21 million passengers in the year ended March 2019. The airport is located near Māngere, a residential suburb, and Airport Oaks, a service hub suburb south of th ...

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

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Baghdad International Airport Baghdad International Airport , previously Saddam International Airport ( ar, مطار بغداد الدولي, Maṭār Baġdād ad-Dawaliyy) is Iraq's largest international airport, located in a suburb about west of downtown Baghdad in the ...

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

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Bahrain International Airport Bahrain International Airport ( ar, مطار البحرين الدولي, ''maṭār al-Baḥrayn al-dwalī'') is the international airport of Bahrain. Located on Muharraq Island, adjacent to the capital Manama, it serves as the hub for the nati ...

Bandar Lengeh Bandar Lengeh ( fa, بندرلنگه, also Romanized as Bandar-e Lengeh, Bandar-e-Langeh and Bandar Langeh; also known simply as Lengeh, Linja, Linjah or Lingah) is a harbour city and capital of Bandar Lengeh County, in Hormozgan province of ...

– Bandar Lengeh Airport *

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

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Don Mueang International Airport Don Mueang International Airport ( th, ท่าอากาศยานดอนเมือง, , , or colloquially as , ) is one of two international airports serving the Bangkok Metropolitan Region, the other one being Suvarnabhumi Airp ...

* Banjul – Banjul International Airport *

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

– Barcelona–El Prat Airport *

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is han ...

– Basra International Airport *

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

– Beirut International Airport *

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

– Belfast International Airport *

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = "Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , es ...

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Bermuda International Airport L.F. Wade International Airport , formerly named Bermuda International Airport, is the sole airport serving the British overseas territory of Bermuda in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is located in the parish of St. George's and is northeast of B ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

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Birmingham Airport Birmingham Airport , formerly ''Birmingham International Airport'', is an international airport located east-southeast of Birmingham city centre, west-northwest of Coventry slightly north of Bickenhill village, in the Metropolitan Borou ...

Blantyre Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, L ...

– Chileka International Airport * Bogota –

El Dorado International Airport El Dorado International Airport is an international airport serving Bogotá, Colombia and its surrounding areas. The airport is located mostly in the Fontibón district of Bogotá, although it partially extends into the Engativá district and ...

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

– Sahar International Airport *

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

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Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport (french: link=no, Aéroport de Bordeaux-Mérignac) is the international airport of Bordeaux, in south-western France. It is situated in the ''commune'' of Mérignac, west of Bordeaux, within the ''département' ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

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Logan International Airport General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport , also known as Boston Logan International Airport and commonly as Boston Logan, Logan Airport or simply Logan, is an international airport that is located mostly in East Boston and partial ...

* Bowen – Bowen Airport *

Bridgetown Bridgetown (UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the capital and largest city of Barbados. Formerly The Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the parish of Saint Michael. Bridgetown is sometimes locally referred to as "The Ci ...

– Seawell Airport *

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

– Brisbane Airport *

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

– Ezeiza International Airport *

Bushehr Bushehr, Booshehr or Bushire ( fa, بوشهر ; also romanised as ''Būshehr'', ''Bouchehr'', ''Buschir'' and ''Busehr''), also known as Bandar Bushehr ( fa, ; also romanised as ''Bandar Būshehr'' and ''Bandar-e Būshehr''), previously Antio ...

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Bushehr Airport Bushehr Airport is a joint civil and military international airport in Bushehr, Iran. Airlines and destinations See also *Iran Civil Aviation Organization *Transport in Iran *List of airports in Iran *List of the busiest airports in Iran *Lis ...

– Payne Airfield *

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Dum Dum Airport Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport is an international airport located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, serving the Kolkata Metropolitan Area and is the aviation hub for eastern and northeastern India. It is located approximatel ...

* Caracas – Simón Bolívar International Airport * Casablanca –

Mohammed V International Airport Mohammed V International Airport, ; ber, ⴰⵣⴰⴳⵯⵣ ⴰⴳⵔⵖⵍⴰⵏ ⵎⵓⵃⵎⵎⴷ ⵡⵙ5; french: Aéroport International de Mohammed V is an international airport serving Casablanca, Morocco. Located in Nouaceur Province ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

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Chicago O'Hare International Airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport , sometimes referred to as, Chicago O'Hare, or simply O'Hare, is the main international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately northwest of the Loop busines ...

* Chittagong - Chittagong Airport *

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo m ...

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Ratmalana Airport Colombo International Airport, Ratmalana ( si, කොළඹ ජාත්‍යන්තර ගුවන්තොටුපළ, රත්මලාන, translit=Koḷam̆ba Jātyantara Guvantoṭupaḷa, Ratmalāna; ta, கொழும்பு ...

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Bandaranaike International Airport Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) ( si, බණ්ඩාරනායක ජාත්‍යන්තර ගුවන්තොටුපළ, translit=Bandāranāyaka Jātyantara Guvantoṭupaḷa; ta, பண்டாரநாயக்க � ...

Dacca Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

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Tejgaon Airport Tejgaon Airport is a Bangladesh Air Force military base in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It served as the country's sole international airport prior to the construction of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. History The British had built military ai ...

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from :wo:daqaar, daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar ...

– Dakar-Yoff International Airport * Damascus –

Damascus International Airport Damascus International Airport ( ar, مَطَار دِمَشْق الدَّوْلِيّ, Maṭār Dimašq ad-Duwaliyy) is the international airport of Damascus, the capital of Syria. Inaugurated in the mid-1970s, it also was the country's busie ...

* Dar es Salaam – Dar es Salaam International Airport * Darwin –

Darwin International Airport Darwin International Airport is the busiest airport serving the Northern Territory and the tenth busiest airport in Australia. It is the only airport serving Darwin. The airport is located in Darwin's northern suburbs, from Darwin cit ...

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Safdarjung Airport Safdarjung Airport is an airport in New Delhi, India, in the Safdarjung (Delhi), neighbourhood of the same name. Established during the British Raj as Willingdon Airfield, it started operations as an aerodrome in 1929, when it was India's secon ...

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

– Stapleton International Airport *

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

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Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport , usually called Detroit Metro Airport, Metro Airport, or simply DTW, is a major international airport in the United States covering effective December 30, 2021. in Romulus, Michigan. It is the primary ...

Dhahran Dhahran ( ar, الظهران, ''Al-Dhahran'') is a city located in the Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. With a total population of 240,742 as of 2021, it is a major administrative center for the Saudi oil industry. Together with the nearby citi ...

– Dhahran International Airport *

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the count ...

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Doha International Airport Doha International Airport ( ar, مطار الدوحة الدولي) is an airport in Doha, Qatar. It was Qatar's commercial international airport until Hamad International Airport opened on 27 May 2014. While all scheduled commercial traffic ...

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

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Dubai International Airport Dubai International Airport ( ar, مطار دبي الدولي) is the primary international airport serving Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is the world's busiest airport by international passenger traffic. It is also the nineteenth-busies ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

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Dublin Airport Dublin Airport (Irish: ''Aerfort Bhaile Átha Cliath'') is an international airport serving Dublin, Ireland. It is operated by DAA (formerly Dublin Airport Authority). The airport is located in Collinstown, north of Dublin, and south of ...

– Louis Botha Airport *

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

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Düsseldorf Airport Düsseldorf Airport (german: link=no, Flughafen Düsseldorf, ; until March 2013 ''Düsseldorf International Airport''; ) is the international airport of Düsseldorf, the capital of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is about north ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

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Edinburgh Airport Edinburgh Airport is an airport located in the Ingliston area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was the busiest airport in Scotland in 2019, handling over 14.7 million passengers. It was also the sixth-busiest airport in the United Kingdom by ...

Entebbe Entebbe is a city in Central Uganda. Located on a Lake Victoria peninsula, approximately southwest of the Ugandan capital city, Kampala. Entebbe was once the seat of government for the Protectorate of Uganda prior to independence, in 1962. T ...

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Entebbe International Airport Entebbe International Airport is the only international airport in Uganda. It is located about southwest of the town of Entebbe, on the northern shores of Lake Victoria. This is approximately by road south-west of the central business distr ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

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Frankfurt am Main Airport Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres. ...

* Freeport –

Grand Bahama International Airport Grand Bahama International Airport (GBIA) is an international airport in Freeport, Bahamas. It was privately owned until the government of the Bahamas purchased it in April 2021. The airport was a joint venture between Hutchison Port Holdin ...

– Freetown-Lungi International Airport * Gander – Gander International Airport * Georgetown – Timehri International Airport *

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

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Glasgow Prestwick Airport Glasgow Prestwick Airport () is an international airport serving the west of Scotland, situated northeast of the town of Prestwick in South Ayrshire and southwest of Glasgow. It is the less busy of the two airports serving the western part of ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

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Kai Tak Airport Kai Tak Airport was the international airport of Hong Kong from 1925 until 1998. Officially known as Hong Kong International Airport from 1954 to 6 July 1998, it is often referred to as Hong Kong International Airport, Kai Tak, or simply Ka ...

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

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John Rodgers Airport Daniel K. Inouye International Airport , also known as Honolulu International Airport, is the main airport of Oahu, Hawaii.Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

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Istanbul Atatürk Airport ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

* Jakarta –

Halim Perdanakusuma Airport Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport ( id, Bandar Udara Internasional Halim Perdanakusuma) is an international airport in Jakarta, Indonesia. The airport is located in East Jakarta and the airfield is conjoined with the Halim Perdanakusum ...

* Jeddah – Kandara Airport *

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

– Jan Smuts International Airport *

Kallang Kallang is a planning area and residential town located in the Central Region of Singapore. Development of the town is centered around the Kallang River, the longest river in Singapore. Kallang Planning Area is bounded by Toa Payoh in the ...

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Kallang Airport Kallang Airport (also known as the Kallang Aerodrome, Kallang Airfield and RAF Kallang) was the first purpose-built civil international airport in Singapore, opened officially on 12 June 1937 and ceased operations in 1955, when it was reloca ...

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...

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Kano Kano may refer to: Places *Kano State, a state in Northern Nigeria * Kano (city), a city in Nigeria, and the capital of Kano State **Kingdom of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between the 10th and 14th centuries **Sultanate of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between ...

– Aminu Kano International Airport *

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

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Jinnah International Airport Jinnah International Airport ( ur, جناح بین الاقوامی ہوائی اڈا) , formerly Drigh Road Airport or Karachi Civil Airport, is Pakistan's busiest international and domestic airport, and handled 7,267,582 passengers in 2017 ...

– Khartoum International Airport * Kingston –

Palisadoes Airport Norman Manley International Airport , formerly Palisadoes Airport, is an international airport serving Kingston, Jamaica and is located south of the island away from the centre of New Kingston. It is the second busiest airport in the country ...

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = ''Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , sub ...

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Subang Airport Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport ( ms, Lapangan Terbang Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah), (formerly Subang International Airport/Kuala Lumpur International Airport), often called Subang Airport or Subang Skypark, is an airport located in Subang, Petalin ...

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

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Kuwait International Airport Kuwait International Airport ( ar, مطار الكويت الدولي, ) is an international airport located in the Farwaniya Governorate, Kuwait, south of the centre of Kuwait City, spread over an area of . It serves as the primary hub for K ...

– Lagos International Airport *

– Gando Airport *

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of ...

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Jorge Chávez International Airport Jorge Chávez International Airport (Aeropuerto Internacional Jorge Chávez) is Peru's main international and domestic airport. It is located in Callao, northwest from Lima Center, the nation's capital city and from the district of Miraf ...

* Lisbon – Portela International Airport * Livingstone –

Livingstone Airport Harry Mwanga Nkumbula International Airport , formerly Livingstone Airport (ICAO: FLLI), is an international airport on the northern edge of Livingstone, Zambia. The airport is named after Harry Mwanga Nkumbula, who was a leader of the Zambia ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

– Heathrow Airport *

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

– Los Angeles International Airport * Lusaka –

Lusaka International Airport Kenneth Kaunda International Airport is an international airport located in Chongwe District, off the Great East Road, approximately northeast of the city centre of Lusaka, the capital and largest city of Zambia. The airport has a capacit ...

Luxor Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''. Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-a ...

– Luxor International Airport *

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

– Madrid–Barajas Airport *

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Malta International Airport Malta International Airport ( mt, L-Ajruport Internazzjonali ta' Malta, ) is the only airport in Malta and it serves the whole of the Maltese Islands. It is located on the island of Malta, southwest of the Maltese capital Valletta, in the town ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

– Manchester Ringway International Airport *

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

Manila International Airport Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA , ; fil, Paliparang Pandaigdig ng Ninoy Aquino or ''Pandaigdigang Paliparan ng Ninoy Aquino''; ), originally known and still commonly referred to as Manila International Airport (MIA), is the main ...

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

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Marseille Provence Airport Marseille Provence Airport () is an international airport located 27 km (17 miles) northwest of Marseille, on the territory of Marignane, both ''communes'' of the Bouches-du-Rhône ''département'' in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur '' r� ...

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

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Plaisance Airport Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport is the main international airport in Mauritius. It is located southeast of the capital city of Port Louis. The airport was previously known as the ''Plaisance Airport'' and has direct flights to ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

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Essendon Airport Essendon Fields Airport , colloquially known by its former name Essendon Airport, is a public airport serving scheduled commercial, corporate-jet, charter and general aviation flights. It is located next to the intersection of the Tullamarin ...

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

– Benito Juárez International Airport *

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

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Miami International Airport Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically as Wilcox Field, is the primary airport serving the greater Miami metropolitan area with over 1,000 daily flights to 167 domestic and international destinations, including most c ...

* Montego Bay –

Montego Bay International Airport Sangster International Airport is an international airport located east of Montego Bay, Jamaica. The airport is capable of handling nine million passengers per year. It serves as the most popular airport for tourists visiting the north coast ...

* Montevideo –

Carrasco International Airport Carrasco/General Cesáreo L. Berisso International Airport is the main international airport of Uruguay. It is the country's largest airport and is located in the Carrasco, Montevideo, Carrasco neighborhood of Montevideo. It has been cited as ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

– Montréal–Dorval International Airport *

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

– Moscow Vnukovo Airport *

Nadi Nadi (pronounced ) is the third-largest conurbation in Fiji. It is located on the western side of the main island of Viti Levu, and had a population of 42,284 at the most recent census, in 2007. A 2012 estimate showed that the population had ...

– Nadi International Airport *

– Nairobi International Airport * Nassau – Nassau International Airport *

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

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Idlewild International Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport (colloquially referred to as JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport, New York-JFK, or simply JFK) is the main international airport serving New York City. The airport is the busiest of the seven airports in the New ...

Ndola Ndola is the third largest city in Zambia and third in terms of size and population, with a population of 475,194 (''2010 census provisional''), after the capital, Lusaka, and Kitwe, and the second largest in terms of infrastructure development aft ...

– Ndola Airport * Nicosia –

Nicosia International Airport Nicosia International Airport ( gr, Διεθνές Αεροδρόμιο Λευκωσίας, tr, Lefkoşa Uluslararası Havaalanı) is a largely disused airport located west of the Cypriot capital city of Nicosia in the Lakatamia suburb. It was ...

Nouadhibou Nouadhibou (; ar, نواذيبو, Nwādībū, Berber: Nwadibu, formerly in French: ) is the second largest city in Mauritania and serves as a major commercial centre. The city itself has about 118,000 inhabitants expanding to over 140,000 in the l ...

– Nouadhibou International Airport *

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

– Osaka International Airport *

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

–

Perth Airport Perth Airport is an international, domestic and general aviation airport serving Perth, the capital city of Western Australia. It is the fourth busiest airport in Australia measured by passenger movements and falls within the boundaries of ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

– Philadelphia International Airport * Portland -

Portland International Airport Portland International Airport is a joint civil–military airport and the largest airport in the U.S. state of Oregon, accounting for 90% of the state's passenger air travel and more than 95% of its air cargo. It is within Portland's city l ...

* Port of Spain –

Piarco International Airport Piarco International Airport is an international airport serving the island of Trinidad and is one of two international airports in Trinidad and Tobago. The airport is located east of Downtown Port of Spain, located in the adjacent town of P ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

– Prague Ruzyne Airport * Rangoon – Rangoon International Airport *

Recife That it may shine on all ( Matthew 5:15) , image_map = Brazil Pernambuco Recife location map.svg , mapsize = 250px , map_caption = Location in the state of Pernambuco , pushpin_map = Brazil#South A ...

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Recife/Guararapes–Gilberto Freyre International Airport Aeroporto Internacional do Recife/Guararapes – Gilberto Freyre is the airport serving Recife, Brazil. It is operated by AENA. Some of its facilities are shared with the Recife Air Force Base of the Brazilian Air Force. History Originally c ...

* Renfrew -

Renfrew Airport Renfrew Airport was the domestic airport serving the city of Glasgow until it was decommissioned in 1966. It was located in the Newmains area of Renfrew, approximately 2 kilometres east of Abbotsinch Airfield which would eventually replace it. I ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

–

Rio de Janeiro–Galeão International Airport Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

– Rome Ciampino Airport * Saint Lucia –

Hewanorra International Airport Hewanorra International Airport , located near Vieux Fort Quarter, Saint Lucia, in the Caribbean, is the larger of Saint Lucia's two airports and is managed by the Saint Lucia Air and Seaports Authority (SLASPA). It is on the southern cape of ...

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

– Salisbury Airport *

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

– San Francisco International Airport *

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

– Los Cerrillos Airport *

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

– Congonhas-São Paulo Airport *

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

–

Seattle–Tacoma International Airport Seattle–Tacoma International Airport , branded as SEA Airport and also referred to as Sea–Tac (), is the primary commercial airport serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It is in the city of SeaTac, which ...

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

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Gimpo International Airport Gimpo International Airport (), commonly known as Gimpo Airport , formerly rendered in English as Kimpo International Airport, is located in the far western end of Seoul, some west of the Central District of Seoul. Gimpo was the main interna ...

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, ...

–

Seychelles International Airport Seychelles International Airport , or ''Aéroport de la Pointe Larue'' in French, is the international airport of the Seychelles located on the island of Mahé near the capital city of Victoria. The airport is the home base and the head office ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

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Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport is one of the two international airports of Shanghai and a significant airline hub of China. Hongqiao Airport mainly serves domestic and regional flights, although the airport also serves international fl ...

* Shannon –

Shannon Airport Shannon Airport ( ga, Aerfort na Sionainne) is an international airport located in County Clare in the Republic of Ireland. It is adjacent to the Shannon Estuary and lies halfway between Ennis and Limerick. The airport is the third busiest ai ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

– Singapore International Airport *

–

Southampton Airport Southampton Airport is an international airport located in both Eastleigh and Southampton, Hampshire in the United Kingdom. The airport is located north-north-east of central Southampton. The southern tip of the runway lies within the Sou ...

* Stockholm –

Stockholm Bromma Airport Bromma Stockholm Airport (formerly Stockholm-Bromma Flygplats) is a Swedish domestic and minor international airport in Stockholm. It is located west-northwest of downtown Stockholm and is the closest to the city compared to the other commercial ...

* Surabaya –

Juanda International Airport Juanda International Airport (JIA) ( id, Bandar Udara Internasional Juanda) , is an international airport located in Sedati, Sidoarjo. It is now the third busiest airport in Indonesia (after Soekarno-Hatta and Ngurah Rai airport). This airp ...

* Sydney – Sydney Airport *

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

– Tehran Mehrabad International Airport *

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...

– Ben Gurion Airport *

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

–

Haneda International Airport , officially , and sometimes called as Tokyo Haneda Airport or Haneda International Airport , is one of two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Narita International Airport (NRT). It serves as the primary ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

– Toronto International Airport *

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

–

* Tripoli –

Tripoli Idris International Airport Tripoli International Airport () is a closed international airport built to serve Tripoli, Libya, Tripoli, the capital city of Libya. The airport is located in the area of Qasr bin Ghashir, from central Tripoli. It used to be the airline hub, ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

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Vancouver International Airport Vancouver International Airport is an international airport located on Sea Island in Richmond, British Columbia, serving the city of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland region. It is located from Downtown Vancouver. It is the second busie ...

Victoria Falls Victoria Falls ( Lozi: ''Mosi-oa-Tunya'', "The Smoke That Thunders"; Tonga: ''Shungu Namutitima'', "Boiling Water") is a waterfall on the Zambezi River in southern Africa, which provides habitat for several unique species of plants and anim ...

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Victoria Falls Airport Victoria Falls Airport is an international airport serving the Victoria Falls tourism industry, and is south of the town of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe Victoria Falls, popularly known as Vic Falls, is a resort town and city in the province o ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

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Vienna International Airport Vienna International Airport (german: Flughafen Wien-Schwechat; ) is the international airport of Vienna, the capital of Austria, located in Schwechat, southeast of central Vienna and west of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. It is the ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

–

Dulles International Airport Washington Dulles International Airport , typically referred to as Dulles International Airport, Dulles Airport, Washington Dulles, or simply Dulles ( ), is an international airport in the Eastern United States, located in Loudoun County and F ...

* Zurich – Zurich-Kloten Airport

Fleet

During the time of the airline's existence, BOAC operated these aircraft: BOAC Boeing Stratocruiser G-AKGJ "RMA Cambria" at Manchester in June 1954 en route to New York BOAC Britannia 312 landing at Manchester on a transatlantic flight in 1959 file:london heathrow airport in 1965 arp.jpg, London Heathrow Airport in 1965. Nearest the camera are two BOAC aircraft – a

(with the high tail) and a Boeing 707. * Concorde, Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde (test flown by BOAC, then to British Airways for passenger service) * Airspeed Consul (1949–54) * Airspeed Oxford (1948–53) * Armstrong Whitworth Atalanta, Armstrong Whitworth A.W.15 Atalanta (1933–41) * Armstrong Whitworth Ensign, Armstrong Whitworth A.W.27 Ensign (1939–46) * Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley V (1942–43) * Avro Lancaster (1944–49) *

(1945–51) * Avro Tudor (1946–51) * Avro York (1944–57) * Boeing 314A Clipper (1941–48) * Boeing 377 Stratocruiser (1949–60) * Boeing 707-300 & -400 (1960–74) * Boeing 747-100 (1969–74) * Bristol Britannia (1955–66) * Canadair C-4 Argonaut (1949–60) * Consolidated Model 28 Catalina (1940–45) * Consolidated Model 32 Liberator (1941–51) * Curtis Wright CW-20 - one aircraft (1941–43) * de Havilland DH.86 Express (1934–41) * de Havilland DH.91 Albatross (1938–43) * de Havilland DH.95 Flamingo (1940–44) * de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito (1943–45) * de Havilland DH.104 Dove (1946–60) * de Havilland DH.106 Comet (1952-54 & 1958–69) * Douglas DC-3/C-47 Dakota (1943–50) * Douglas DC-7C (1956–65) *

Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 ''Condor'', also known as ''Kurier'' to the Allies ( English: Courier), was a German all-metal four-engined monoplane originally developed by Focke-Wulf as a long-range airliner. A Japanese request for a long-range mariti ...

- one Danish Airlines aircraft interned (1940–42) * Handley Page H.P.70 Halifax/Halton (1946–48) * Handley Page H.P.81 Hermes (1949–57) *

Lockheed 10 Electra The Lockheed Model 10 Electra is an American twin-engined, all-metal monoplane airliner developed by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in the 1930s to compete with the Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-2. The type gained considerable fame as one was fl ...

(1937–44) * Lockheed 14 Super Electra (1938–44) * Lockheed 18 Lodestar (1941–48) * Lockheed 414 Hudson (1941–45) * Lockheed L-049 & L-749 Constellation (1946–59) * Short S.23, S.30 & S.33 Empire (1937–47) * Short S.25 Sunderland/Hythe (1942–49) * Short S.25 Sandringham (1947–60) * Short S.26 (1939–47) * Short S.45 Solent (1946–50) * Vickers VC10 & Super VC10 (1964-1974) * Vickers Viking (1946–47) *

Vickers Warwick The Vickers Warwick was a multi-purpose twin-engined British aircraft developed and operated during the Second World War. In line with the naming convention followed by other RAF heavy bombers of the era, it was named after a British city or ...

- one aircraft (1944–45) *

Vickers Wellington The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson; a key feature of the aircraft is its ...

(1942–43) Dates above are for service with BOAC or its forerunners; those still in service in 1974 subsequently passed to British Airways.

Incidents and accidents

1940s

* On 22 April 1940,

Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra The Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra was an American civil passenger and cargo aircraft built by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation during the late 1930s. An outgrowth of the earlier Model 10 Electra, the Model 14 was also developed into larger, ...

G-AKFD ''Loch Invar'' crashed 10 miles off course at Beinn Uird, near Loch Lomond, Scotland, killing the three crew. * On 23 May 1940,

G-ADSZ ''Elysean'' stalled and crashed at Merville Airport after the crew diverted to avoid an attack by a German fighter. *On 23 May 1940, Armstrong Whitworth Ensign G-ADTA ''Euryalus'' was damaged during a crash at

RAF Lympne The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

. It had been one of six that escaped a

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

raid on Merville Airfield, France. The intended destination was Croydon. Approaching the English coast, first she lost her port inner engine and the pilot diverted to RAF Hawkinge. Her starboard inner engine also had to be shut down shortly afterwards. The pilot changed course for Lympne. On landing, the starboard undercarriage failed to lock down, causing the wing to drag on the ground and the aircraft to go through a fence. ''Euryalus'' was flown to

RAF Hamble Hamble-le-Rice is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Eastleigh in Hampshire, England. It is best known for being an aircraft training centre during the Second World War and is a popular yachting location. The village and the River Ha ...

in June, but it was decided to cannibalise her to repair G-ADSU ''Euterpe'' which had been damaged in an accident at Bonnington on 15 December 1939. ''Euryalus'' was scrapped in September 1942.
p203

). * On 1 September 1941,

Consolidated Liberator C I Consolidated Liberator I was the service name of the first Consolidated B-24 Liberator four-engined bombers to see use with the Royal Air Force (RAF). A small number of B-24s were purchased for the RAF but assessment showed that they were not s ...

''AM915'' crashed into a hill outside Campbeltown, Argyll, after a flight from Montreal, killing all four crew and six passengers. * On 29 December 1941, Short Empire G-ADUX ''Cassiopeia'' crashed after striking debris on takeoff from Sabang, Indonesia, killing four. * On 30 January 1942, Short Empire G-AEUH ''Corio'' was shot down by seven Japanese fighter aircraft and

crashed "Crashed" is the third U.S. rock Single (music), single, (the fifth overall), from the band Daughtry (band), Daughtry's debut album. It was released only to U.S. rock stations on September 5, 2007. Upon its release the song got adds at those stat ...

off West Timor, killing 13 of 18 on board. The aircraft was owned by BOAC, but was operated by Qantas. * On 15 February 1942, Consolidated Liberator C I G-AGDR was shot down by a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

Supermarine Spitfire in error over the English Channel near Plymouth, England. All five crew and four passengers (including Townsend Griffiss) were killed. The RAF increased aircraft reconnaissance training in response to this incident. * On 28 February 1942, Short Empire G-AETZ ''Circe'' was shot down over the Pacific between Cilacap and Broome by a Japanese fighter, killing all 22 on board. This crash is the worst ever accident involving the Short Empire. The aircraft was operating for Qantas. * On 22 March 1942, Short Empire G-AEUF struck debris while landing and crashed at Port Darwin, Australia, killing two of 11 passengers on board; all four crew survived. * On 24 September 1942, Short Empire G-AFCZ ''Clare'' broke up and sank following a forced landing in the Atlantic off Senegal due to engine failure; all 19 on board died. * On 9 January 1943, Short S.26 G-AFCK ''Golden Horn'' crashed in the Tagus River near Lisbon while attempting an emergency landing due to an in-flight fire, killing 13 of 15 on board. The aircraft was on a test flight following replacement of an engine. * On 15 February 1943,

de Havilland Flamingo The de Havilland DH.95 Flamingo was a British twin-engined high-wing monoplane airliner first flown on 22 December 1938. During the Second World War some were used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a transport and general communications dut ...

G-AFYE crashed at Asmara, Eritrea after going into a vertical dive from during a test flight, killing both pilots. * On 23 March 1943,

Consolidated PBY Catalina The Consolidated PBY Catalina is a flying boat and amphibious aircraft that was produced in the 1930s and 1940s. In Canadian service it was known as the Canso. It was one of the most widely used seaplanes of World War II. Catalinas served wi ...

G-AGDA ''Dog-Able'' crashed on landing at Poole Harbor during a training flight, killing three of six on board. * On 4 April 1943, Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar (C-56B) G-AGEJ was possibly shot down by a Junkers Ju 88 of Luftwaffe 10/NJG 3 and crashed 31 mi off Skagen, Denmark, killing all seven on board. * On 1 June 1943, Flight 777, a Douglas DC-3 G-AGBB was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by eight

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Junkers Ju 88 The Junkers Ju 88 is a German World War II ''Luftwaffe'' twin-engined multirole combat aircraft. Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works (JFM) designed the plane in the mid-1930s as a so-called '' Schnellbomber'' ("fast bomber") that would be too fast ...

s of KG 40. All seventeen crew and passengers were killed, including actor Leslie Howard (actor), Leslie Howard. There has been widespread speculation that the downing was an attempt to kill British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The aircraft was owned and operated by KLM, flying for BOAC. * On 16 June 1943,

IV ''FK459'' stalled and crashed while turning for approach to Khartoum Civil Airport due to fuel starvation and engine failure, killing all 17 on board. The aircraft was an RAF military transport operating for BOAC. * On 30 June 1943, Lockheed Hudson IV ''FK618'' spiraled down and crashed near Khartoum, Sudan killing all 16 on board. The aircraft, an RAF military transport operating for BOAC, was probably overloaded. * On 28 July 1943,

3 G-AGES, crashed into a hill in Dingle Peninsula near the village of Brandon, County Kerry, Brandon in

on a flight from Lisbon to

. The crash killed 10 passengers and crew out of 25 on board. * On 17 August 1943, de Havilland Mosquito G-AGGF crashed near Glenshee, Perthshire. * On 25 October 1943, de Havilland Mosquito G-AGGG crashed near RAF Leuchars. * On 5 November 1943, Short Sunderland 3 G-AGIB crashed in the desert 75 miles south-southwest of Sollum, Libya after a portion of the right wing and float separated following an in-flight fire probably caused by an electrical problem; all 19 on board died. * On 17 December 1943, Lockheed Lodestar G-AGDE crashed into the sea off Leuchars, Scotland on a flight from RAF Leuchars to Stockholm-Bromma Airport. The accident killed all 10 passengers and crew on board the flight. * On 3 January 1944, de Havilland Mosquito G-AGGD stalled on landing at Lidköping-Hovby Airport, Såtenäs, Sweden and was written off. * On 19 August 1944, de Havilland Mosquito G-AGKP crashed into the North Sea off Leuchars, Fife. All three people on board were killed. * On 29 August 1944, Lockheed C-60A G-AGIH crashed after striking the top of Kinnekulle, Mount Kinnekulle near Lidköping, Sweden, killing 11 of 15 on board. * On 29 August 1944, de Havilland Mosquito G-AGKR disappeared on a flight from Gothenburg, Sweden to RAF Leuchars with the loss of both crew. * On 29 November 1944, Lockheed Lodestar G-AGBW struck the side of Kinangop Peak, Kenya while descending for Nairobi in bad weather, killing all 11 on board; the wreckage was found on 1 January 1945. * On 21 February 1946, Consolidated Liberator II G-AGEM crashed on landing at Charlottetown, Canada due to icing, killing one of 14 on board. * On 23 March 1946,

I G-AGLX disappeared between Sri Lanka and the Cocos Islands with ten on board. The aircraft was owned by BOAC, but was operated by Qantas. * On 14 August 1946, Douglas C-47 Skytrain, Douglas Dakota III G-AGHT crashed at Luqa Airport due to fuel starvation after the auxiliary fuel tanks were selected by mistake, killing one of five on board. * On 20 August 1946, Avro Lancastrian 1 G-AGMF crashed at Rouen, France when the crew failed to correctly establish the aircraft's position during descent, killing eight of nine on board. * On 11 January 1947, Douglas Dakota III G-AGJX 1947 BOAC Douglas C-47 crash, crashed at Stowting, Kent whilst on an international scheduled flight from Heathrow to West Africa via Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport, Bordeaux. A number of attempts were made to divert in poor weather. The aircraft crashed whilst attempting to land at Lympne Airport, Lympne. Eight people were killed and eight injured of the five crew and 11 passengers. * On 16 July 1947, Avro York C.1 G-AGNR crashed at Az-Zubair, Iran due to pilot and ATC errors, killing all six crew; all 12 passengers survived. * On 23 August 1947, Short Sandringham 5 G-AHZB crashed on landing at Bahrain Marine Air Base due to the pilot using an incorrect procedure for landing and takeoff, killing ten of 26 on board. * On 19 November 1947, Short Sunderland 3 G-AGHW struck high ground at Brightstone Down in poor visibility due to navigation errors by the pilot, killing one of four on board. * On 14 July 1948, Douglas Dakota IV G-AGKN crashed into cloud-covered cliffs near Toulon, France, killing all six on board. * September 5, 1948 - The Short S.25 Sunderland 3 with registration G-AGEW crashed on takeoff at Surabaya. The port float assembly collapsed on takeoff. The aircraft was turned over.

1950s

* On 26 May 1952, Flight 251, operated by

IV G-ALDN, force-landed 71 mi from Atar, Mauritania, due to fuel starvation after the aircraft had flown off course for several hours as a result of navigation and pilot errors. The aircraft had taken off from Tripoli, Libya, with the intended destination of

, Nigeria. All on board survived, but the first officer died of heat stroke five days later while awaiting rescue. * On 26 October 1952, DH Comet 1 G-ALYZ, the first Comet taken into service only the month before, crashed on takeoff at Ciampino Airport, Rome.There were no casualties and Italian investigators concluded pilot error as cause of this crash. The investigators found scrapes on the runway for over 650 yards, combined with the pilot report of not getting speed up after rotation and referencing the BOAC Comet manual which stated : "at 80 knots the nose should be raised until the rumble of the nose-wheel ceases. Care should be taken not to over do this and adopt an exaggerated tail down attitude with consequent poor acceleration". The conclusion was made: "An error of judgement by the captain in not appreciating the excessive nose up attitude of the Aircraft during take off". * On 2 May 1953, BOAC Flight 783, Flight 783/057, a de Havilland Comet I G-ALYV crashed 25 miles north-west of

, India, after suffering structural failure while climbing through 7,500 ft in a severe storm. The crash occurred shortly after take-off from Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport (then known as Dum Dum Airport) on a flight to Delhi, and killed all 43 passengers and crew on board. * On 10 January 1954, BOAC Flight 781, Flight 781, a de Havilland Comet I, G-ALYP, took off from Ciampino Airport in Rome, Italy, en route to Heathrow Airport in London, England; as it was reaching cruising altitude it suffered an explosive decompression and crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea near Elba, killing all 35 on board. * On 13 March 1954, a Lockheed L-749A Constellation, G-ALAM, 1954 BOAC Lockheed Constellation crash, crashed at

, when it landed short and struck a sea wall after a flight from Jakarta, killing 33 people out of 40 passengers and crew on board. Pilot fatigue was cited as a contributing cause, and inadequate rescue services were implicitly blamed for some of the fatalities. * On 8 April 1954, de Havilland Comet I G-ALYY was operating South African Airways Flight 201 at night when it suffered what was almost certainly an explosive decompression at altitude and crashed into the sea near the island of Stromboli, off the Italian coast near Naples. The wreckage was never recovered, but all known evidence pointed to a repeat of the recent accident to G-ALYP. The aircraft was operating for South African Airways on charter from BOAC, with an SAA crew. * Early on Christmas Day 25 December 1954, at 0330 hours, a BOAC Boeing 377 Stratocruiser G-ALSA 1954 Prestwick air disaster, crashed on landing at Prestwick, killing 28 of the 36 passengers and crew on board. The aircraft was en route from London to New York when, on approach to an intermediate stop at Prestwick, it entered a steep descent before levelling out too late and too severely, hitting the ground short of the runway. The crash was attributed to a number of factors, including pilot fatigue (the captain was well over his duty limit due to the flight being delayed), the landing lights at Prestwick being out of action due to repair and the First Officer either not hearing a command from the Captain for landing lights (which may have helped judge the low cloud base) or mistakenly hitting the flaps, causing the aircraft to stall. * On 21 September 1955, Canadair North Star, Canadair Argonaut G-ALHL crashed during a storm at Tripoli International Airport after a flight from London and Rome. The aircraft, which was making its fourth attempt to land in the severe weather conditions, struck trees short of the runway. The accident and ensuing fire killed 15 passengers and crew out of 47 people on board. * On 24 June 1956, Canadair Argonaut G-ALHE 1956 Kano Airport BOAC Argonaut crash, crashed after taking off from Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport on a flight to Tripoli International Airport. The aircraft had reached 200 ft when it encountered a microburst, causing an abrupt loss of speed and altitude. With the Argonaut barely 20 ft above the ground the captain regained control, but too late to avoid colliding with a large baobab tree. The crash killed 32 passengers and crew out of 45 people on board. * On 24 December 1958, a Bristol Britannia 312 G-AOVD 1958 BOAC Bristol Britannia crash, crashed during a test flight near Winkton, England, killing nine of 12 on board.

1960s

* On 5 March 1966, BOAC Flight 911, Flight 911, a Boeing 707 G-APFE, crashed on Mount Fuji after experiencing clear air turbulence. All 124 on board died. * On 9 April 1968, BOAC Flight 712, Flight 712 a Rolls-Royce Conway engine exploded and broke off from the wing of a Boeing 707 G-ARWE ("Whisky-Echo") following take-off from London Heathrow Airport causing an uncontained wing fire. A successful emergency landing at Heathrow was carried out, but a stewardess and four passengers were killed and 38 other passengers were injured as the fire spread during evacuation. The stewardess, Barbara Jane Harrison, was awarded a posthumous George Cross for her part in helping passengers escape.

1970s

* On 9 September 1970, BOAC Flight 775, Flight 775, operated by

G-ASGN, became the first British plane to be hijacked as part of the Dawson's Field hijackings. * In the early hours of 22 July 1971, BOAC Flight 045 from London to Khartoum was ordered by air control in

(and allegedly forced to obey the order by Libyan military jets) to land at Benghazi at 3.30 am. Sudanese rebel leader Babiker El Nur, announced as president a week before in 1971 Sudanese coup d'état, a political coup, and his companion Major Farouk Hamadallah, were instructed to leave the aircraft, or the fighter planes would bomb it. El Nur quickly agreed to leave, in order to save the lives of the other passengers. He and Hamadallah were quickly taken off the aircraft to be held at gunpoint. Despite strong British government protests to the Sudan about the outrage, and an appeal to Jaafar Nimeiry, President Nimeiry for clemency, the men were both executed within a week. * On 3 August 1971, BOAC Flight 600, operated by a Boeing 747 from Montreal to London, was diverted to

, Colorado due to a bomb hoax inspired by a TV film ''Doomsday Flight''. The aircraft travelled 3,200 miles out of its way to land in Denver. The supposed bomb was thought to be triggered by flying below 5,000 feet. Denver's airport was above 5,000 feet.

Non-fatal accidents

1940s

* On 14 September 1940, Short Scylla G-ACJJ ''Scylla'' was destroyed in a windstorm while parked at RAF Drem, Scotland. * On 6 October 1940, de Havilland Albatross G-AFDL ''Fingal'' crashed at Pucklechurch, Gloucestershire during a ferry flight; all three on board survived. * On 24 November 1940, Douglas DC-3 G-AGBI and Armstrong Whitworth Ensign II G-ADTC were destroyed on the ground at Whitchurch Airfield during a German daylight bombing raid. * On 20 December 1940, de Havilland Albatross G-AFDI ''Frobisher'' was destroyed on the ground by a German air raid while parked at Whitchurch Airfield. * On 15 February 1941,

G-AFCX ''Clyde'' was wrecked in a gale at Lisbon, Portugal. * On 23 June 1942, Lockheed Hudson III G-AGDF ditched in the Gullmarsfjorden off Skredewick, Sweden after one engine failed and the other caught fire; all 10 on board survived. * On 16 July 1943, de Havilland Albatross G-AFDK ''Fortuna'' crashed while on approach to Shannon Airport due to wing failure; all 14 on board survived. * On 21 April 1944, Douglas C-47 G-AGFZ was written off following a landing accident at Bromma Airport; the aircraft was sold to AB Aerotransport for spare parts. * On 2 May 1945, Lockheed C-60A G-AGLI ditched in the Baltic Sea in Sikeåfjärden off Västerbotten, Sweden after the crew became disorientated; all nine on board survived and were rescued by locals.

1950s

* On 26 October 1952, de Havilland Comet 1A G-ALYZ failed to gain altitude and crashed on takeoff from Ciampino Airport due to pilot error; all 43 on board survived, but the aircraft was written off, resulting in the first hull-loss of the Comet. * On 25 July 1953, de Havilland Comet 1 G-ALYR experienced a runway excursion while taxiing at Dum Dum Airport. While taxiing, the crew used the landing lights because the taxi lights were too dim. In a left turn while alternating between the left and right lights, the pilot took his hand off the steering wheel, causing the steering to center. The right side main landing gear left the runway; right side engine power was increased and this caused the landing gear to be forced up into the wing, causing severe damage. All 42 on board survived; the aircraft was written off.

1960s

* On 14 March 1960, de Havilland Comet 4 G-APDS struck a ridge while on approach to Barajas Airport, tearing off the landing gear wheels and port side wing fuel tank and damaging the port wing flaps. The pilot abandoned the approach and performed an emergency landing with the damaged gear down. All 32 on board survived and the aircraft was repaired and returned to service. The aircraft was flying too low during the approach. * On 22 August 1960, de Havilland Comet 4 G-APDB took off from a runway at Cairo International Airport that was under construction. The port side main landing gear fell into a hole, breaking off the axles and wheels; all 60 on board survived and the aircraft was repaired and returned to service. * On 24 December 1960, Boeing 707-436 G-APFN overran the runway on landing at Heathrow Airport; all 106 on board survived and the aircraft was repaired and returned to service. The aircraft had come in too fast and landed too far down the runway as a result. * On 9 March 1964, de Havilland Comet 4 G-APDN suffered a tailstrike while landing at Mehrabad Airport, damaging the underside of the fuselage and control of the elevators was lost, but the aircraft continued the landing without further incident. All 57 on board survived.

In popular culture

The Beatles song "Back in the U.S.S.R." references a flight from Miami Beach aboard a BOAC aircraft. In the song Montego Bay by Bobby Bloom, the first line is Vernon will meet me when the BOAC lands. It is referenced in the James Tiptree Jr. story "The Last Flight of Dr. Ain." Multiple references throughout the Netflix TV Series The Crown (TV series), The Crown. In The Sopranos, Season 6 Episode 19 “The Second Coming," Paulie Walnuts reminisces that he was dosed with Lsd, LSD when a BOAC stewardess put it in his drink, during a 1968 visit to the Copacabana (nightclub), Copacabana nightclub. In Ian Fleming's Goldfinger, a BOAC aircraft is hijacked by the villain, Auric Goldfinger, and James Bond held captive upon it until he is able to retrieve the situation. One of the

aircraft operated by

was tail-named G-BOAC. Because of this coincidental reference to BOAC, it was designated the flagship of the Fleet. It is currently on permanent display at Manchester Airport.

Notes

Bibliography

*Cooper, Barbara, ed. ''B.O.A.C Book of Flight.'' London: Max Parrish, 1959. *Higham, Robin. ''Speedbird: The Complete History of BOAC.'' London: I.B. Tauris, distributed by Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 491-page scholarly history. . *Jackson, A.J. ''Avro Aircraft since 1908.'' London: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1990. . *Munson, Kenneth. ''Pictorial History of BOAC and Imperial Airways.'' London: Ian Allan, 1970. . *Penrose, Harald. ''Wings Across the World: An Illustrated History of British Airways.'' London: Cassell, 1980 . * John Pudney, Pudney, John. ''The Seven Skies: A Study of B.O.A.C. and its Forerunners Since 1919.'' Putnam, 1959. * * * Turner-Hughes, Charles. "Armstrong Whitworth's Willing Whitley". ''Air Enthusiast'', No. 9, February–May 1979, pp. 10–25. . *Woodley, Charles. ''BOAC: An Illustrated History.'' Stroud, England: Tempus, 2004. .

External links

British Airways Archive and Museum Collection

BOAC Junior Jet Club Information

BOAC Junior Jet Club Facebook Group

Catalogue of the BOAC Operational Research Branch archives
held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
BOAC's first New York service August 1940, CLARE at La Guardia Marine terminal, colour photos, LIFE magazine
* {{Authority control British Overseas Airways Corporation, Airlines established in 1939 Defunct airlines of the United Kingdom Former nationalised industries of the United Kingdom Defunct seaplane operators Airlines disestablished in 1974 1974 mergers and acquisitions British companies established in 1939 British companies disestablished in 1974