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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 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. From 1946 until 1974, BEA operated a network
of internal German routes between West Berlin and West Germany
as well. 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. Operations
commenced from Northolt airport, with DH89A Dragon Rapides and
Douglas Dakota's. Having established its main operating base
at Northolt, 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. During 1952, BEA carried its millionth
passenger, and by the early 1960s it had become the western world's
fifth-biggest passenger-carrying airline and the biggest outside
the United States. In 1950, BEA operated the world's first turbine-powered
commercial air service with Vickers' Viscount 630 prototype,
from London to Paris. The airline entered the jet age in 1960
with de Havilland's DH106 Comet 4B. 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. For most of its existence,
BEA was headquartered at BEAline House in Ruislip, London Borough
of Hillingdon. BEA ceased to exist as a legal entity on 1 April
1974 when the merger with BOAC to form British Airways (BA) took
effect.
Although there are various claims
that BEA operated from Croydon as a base hub this is incorrect.
BEA never operated directly from Croydon. In November 1946, BEA's
first service to Northern Ireland listed it's departure from
Croydon for Belfast via Liverpool. The first leg from Croydon
to Liveerpool was actually undertaken on contract by Railway
Air Services using an ex-Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 52/3m operated
by the independent airline Railway Air Services. BEA replaced
the "Jupiter" class Ju 52s from 1947 with ex RAF C47
Dakota's re-naming them Pionair's.
On the 1st of February 1947,
the process of merging the remaining wholly private, independent
airlines operating in the UK under the AAJC umbrella into BEA
began. Railway Air Services, Isle of Man Air Services, and Scottish
Airways (which had been formed in 1937 by merging Northern &
Scottish Airways and Highland Airways) were among the first independents
merged into the new corporation. |
