Chosen Instruments: the Evolution of British Airways

Abstract

When Lord King became chairman of British Airways in 1981 he took over the leadership of an airline with an accumulated history of over forty years and a tradition stretching back nearly sixty. It was an illustrious history, but one with its share of disasters and disappointments. British Airways and its predecessors had suffered from misguided policy, poor management and troublesome aircraft. However they had also built up one of the longest international route networks in the world, carried millions of passengers in comfort and safety, and pioneered the world’s first passenger jet aircraft.