British European Airways

For the later airline briefly known as British European, see Flybe (1979–2020). For the present-day successor airline, see British Airways.

British European Airways
IATA ICAO Call sign
BE BEA BEALINE
Founded1 January 1946 (1946-01-01)
Ceased operations31 March 1974 (1974-03-31)
(merged with BOAC, Cambrian Airways and Northeast Airlines to form British Airways)
Hubs
Secondary hubs
DestinationsEurope, North Africa, Middle East
HeadquartersBEAline House, Ruislip, Hillingdon, England
Key people
British European Airways coat of arms
BEA flight attendant lapel badge

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.[1] The airline was also the largest UK domestic operator, serving major British cities, including London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast, as well as areas of the British Isles such as the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.[2] BEA also operated a network of internal German routes between West Berlin and West Germany as part of the Cold War agreements regulating air travel within Germany.[3] The company slogan was Number One in Europe.

Formed as the British European Airways division of British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) on 1 January 1946, BEA became a crown corporation in its own right on 1 August 1946.[4]

Operations commenced from Croydon and Northolt airports, with DH89A Dragon Rapides and Douglas DC-3s.[4]

Having established its main operating base at Northolt,[4] BEA operated its first service from Heathrow in April 1950; by late 1954, all Northolt operations had moved to Heathrow, which remained the airline's main operating base until the merger with BOAC in 1974.[5]

During 1952, BEA carried its millionth passenger,[5] and by the early 1960s it had become the Western world's[nb 1] fifth-biggest passenger-carrying airline[nb 2] and the biggest outside the United States.[6]

In 1950, BEA operated the world's first turbine-powered commercial air service with Vickers' Viscount 630 prototype, from London to Paris.[7] The airline entered the jet age in 1960 with de Havilland's DH106 Comet 4B.[8] On 1 April 1964, it became the first to operate the DH121 Trident; on 10 June 1965, a BEA Trident 1C performed the world's first automatic landing during a scheduled commercial air service.[9]

For most of its existence, BEA was headquartered at BEAline House in Ruislip, London Borough of Hillingdon.[10]

BEA ceased to exist as a separate legal entity on 1 April 1974 when the merger with BOAC to form British Airways (BA) took effect.[11] The name was revived by British Airways from 1991 to 2008 when it changed the name of an existing subsidiary, British Airways Tour Operations Limited to British European Airways Limited. British Airways Tour Operations Limited was itself founded in 1935 as an air travel company, named Silver Wing Surface Arrangements Limited.[12]

  1. ^ Classic Aircraft (Gone but not forgotten ... BEA), Vol. 45, No. 6, pp. 44/5, 49 (Jet equipment), Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, June 2012
  2. ^ Classic Aircraft (Gone but not forgotten ... BEA: Highlands and Islands – Never on a Sunday), Vol. 45, No. 6, p. 46, Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, June 2012
  3. ^ Classic Aircraft (Gone but not forgotten ... BEA: Internal German Services – Berlin-bound), Vol. 45, No. 6, p. 51, Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, June 2012
  4. ^ a b c Classic Aircraft (Gone but not forgotten ... BEA: Post-war pioneers), Vol. 45, No. 6, p. 45, Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, June 2012
  5. ^ a b Classic Aircraft (Gone but not forgotten ... BEA means business), Vol. 45, No. 6, p. 47, Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, June 2012
  6. ^ Classic Aircraft (Gone but not forgotten ... BEA), Vol. 45, No. 6, pp. 45, 49 (Jet equipment), Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, June 2012
  7. ^ Classic Aircraft (Gone but not forgotten ... BEA means business), Vol. 45, No. 6, p. 48, Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, June 2012
  8. ^ Classic Aircraft (Gone but not forgotten ... BEA: Jet equipment), Vol. 45, No. 6, p. 48, Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, June 2012
  9. ^ Classic Aircraft (Gone but not forgotten ... BEA: Jet equipment), Vol. 45, No. 6, pp. 50/1, Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, June 2012
  10. ^ "World Airline Directory". Flight International. 28 September 1967. p. 529. Archived from the original on 13 November 2012. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
  11. ^ Classic Aircraft (Gone but not forgotten ... BEA: Birth of BA), Vol. 45, No. 6, p. 52, Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, June 2012
  12. ^ Companies House London, https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/00297907 Archived 15 December 2021 at the Wayback Machine


Cite error: There are <ref group=nb> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=nb}} template (see the help page).