This was in stark contrast to BA's mainline short haul operation at Gatwick, which had racked up huge losses ever since BA had established a major presence at Gatwick as a result of the British Caledonian and Dan-Air takeovers.

After the failed attempt to use the acquisition of Dan-Air, which was on the verge of bankruptcy at the end of October 1992, to form a new low-cost, short haul unit within BA's mainline short haul operation at Gatwick, franchising seemed to offer the best solution for providing the level of feeder services BA needed to protect its long-haul loads and profits at Gatwick, without re-creating the complex organisation and fleet mix, and without duplicating the costly overheads of the BA mainline short haul operation at Heathrow, which did not suit the revenue environment at Gatwick.

To attain this goal, BA's management unilaterally imposed the pay scales and terms of the old Dan-Air employment contracts on the entire workforce of its Gatwick-based short haul operation at the beginning of 1993.

However, BA's unilateral decision to force everyone working for its short haul operation at Gatwick to take a pay cut caused bitter feelings towards the company, among both former Dan-Air staff as well as BA's existing employees at Gatwick who were already working for its short haul operation there prior to Dan-Air's acquisition.

Therefore, BA's attempt to extend the lower pay scales and less generous terms of employment that prevailed at Dan-Air to align the costs of its short haul operation at Gatwick with the airport's revenue environment eventually turned out to be a costly failure.

There she worked in sales, marketing, and on the team that integrated Dan-Air into BA's business.

The latter began with BA's mid-2003 sale for a symbolic € 1 ( 72p ) of its German subsidiary DBA to Intro Verwaltungsgesellschaft, a Nuremberg-based consultancy and investment company headed by German entrepreneur Hans Rudolf Wöhrl who founded German charter airline Eurowings and also was a former DBA board member.

He also chairs the Boards of Directors for each of the BA's affiliated research institutes and museums and is a professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

The power of the unions representing the affected workers as well as the entrenched attitudes of the middle management within BA's complex, hierarchical organisation also meant that the airline was unable to win any concessions that would have helped it offset the additional costs it was going to face in its short haul operation at Gatwick against increased labour productivity, in return for not cutting those workers ' pay.

The decision by the MMC to require BA to give up 5, 000 annual slots at Gatwick to competitors and to re-apply for some of British Caledonian's most important short haul feeder routes, as well as the subsequent decision by the CAA to award all of these routes to rival, independent airlines left BA's Gatwick operation with only ten short haul routes.

The losses BA's mainline short haul services generated at Gatwick were at the heart of the unsatisfactory financial performance of the entire Gatwick operation.

Apart from the additional transfer traffic this generated for BA's long haul services at Gatwick, the main benefit of this arrangement for BA was that CityFlyer was to remain completely independent of the BA mainline operation.

The feeder services CityFlyer provided for BA at Gatwick under the franchise agreement did not impact the direct operating costs of BA's mainline operation.

The prime causes for BA's inability to operate profitably at Gatwick are:

The routes the CAA had awarded BA's independent rivals included the most profitable former British Caledonian short haul routes that had generated a substantial amount of transfer traffic for that airline's Gatwick-based scheduled operation, such as London Gatwick — Paris Charles de Gaulle and Gatwick — Brussels.

The loss of these vital routes to rival airlines and the consequent reduction in the number of passengers making connections between BA's short and long haul flights at Gatwick threatened the company's ability to continue operating profitably on the long haul routes it had inherited at Gatwick from British Caledonian.

BA's failure to simplify its complex, hierarchical organisation to enable it to reduce its overheads has been the main reason that has until now prevented the airline from achieving a cost structure that would make its Gatwick operation profitable.

Project " Jupiter " was BA's internal working title for the strategy it had devised to turn the struggling Gatwick operation into a fully fledged hub.

Virgin, which began with one route and one Boeing 747 in 1984 was beginning to emerge as a serious threat on some of BA's most lucrative routes.

Also known as the Utopia or world image tailfins, they used art and designs from international artists and other sources to represent countries on BA's route network.

At the time, in addition to BA's mainline operation, which accounted for the bulk of the airline's scheduled services at Gatwick, all of its UK-based franchisees ( with the exception of British Mediterranean and Loganair ) as well as the company's subsidiaries and partners provided scheduled services at the airport as well, in some cases with a single aircraft on one route only, operating all aircraft types in their combined inventory except Concorde and some of the smaller commuter planes.

Virgin, which began with one route and one Boeing 747 in 1984 was beginning to emerge as a serious threat on some of BA's most lucrative routes.

Virgin, which began with one route and one Boeing 747 in 1984, was beginning to emerge as a serious threat on some of BA's most lucrative routes.

While no concrete reason was ever provided, rising fuel costs and a desire to focus on their core service have been cited as reasons for BA's desire to sell.

The decision to abolish the London TDRs and to let Virgin Atlantic operate at Heathrow in competition with British Airways became the trigger for BA's so-called " dirty tricks " campaign against Virgin.

The impetus for the BA's formation was the September 20, 1998 arrest and subsequent conviction of former UMNO deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, who had been fired from his government posts and subsequently became the leader of the Reformasi movement against UMNO.

BA's acquisition of the bulk of Dan-Air's scheduled activities at the end of October 1992 was intended to create the basis for a new in-house, low-cost unit that would enable the airline to reverse the heavy losses its own mainline operation's Gatwick-based short haul services incurred by transferring its entire short haul operation at the airport to the new unit.

For all these reasons the grandiose BA-AA alliance ultimately turned out to be a very costly distraction for BA's management and was the main contributing factor that led to Robert Ayling's downfall who happened to be the BA chief executive during that period.

He furthermore stated that Gatwick's loss was entirely accounted for by its mainline short haul operation whose schedules were primarily designed to feed BA's long haul services at the airport.

This was accompanied by a reduction in BA's headcount at Gatwick to 3, 000 as well as the introduction of a common cabin crew pool for both its short and long haul operations at the airport and a number of other cost-cutting measures.

There were two reasons for fully integrating CityFlyer into BA's mainline short haul operation at Gatwick.

Under this agreement, Loganair's services were operated under British Airways flight codes and flights were sold through British Airways and the airline participated in BA's Executive Club and BA Miles programme.

BMED flights were booked through British Airways and the airline participated in BA's Executive Club and BA Miles programme.

At the same time, BA's senior management had become so preoccupied with this alliance that it did not pay any attention to the fundamental changes that were beginning to re-shape the airline industry at the time.

They included the inexorable rise of the low-cost, " no frills " airlines, first and foremost EasyJet and Ryanair, in BA's own backyard as well as the growing competitive threat posed by the government-assisted recovery of Lufthansa and Air France, BA's main European full-service, network airline rivals, both of which had been in no position to challenge BA commercially in the early to mid-1990s as they were effectively bankrupt at that time.

Moreover, in his opinion, the physical constraints imposed on BA's Gatwick operation by the airport's single runway and two terminals meant that the airline could not offer truly competitive schedules, in terms of frequencies and conveniently timed connections.

GB Airways flights could be booked through British Airways and the airline participated in BA's Executive Club and BA Miles programme.

BA's access rights to Heathrow under Bermuda II derived from the fact that it was the legal heir to British Overseas Airways Corporation ( BOAC ) on all routes that airline used to operate between Heathrow and various points in the US under the original Bermuda agreement.

Therefore, BA's senior management decided that it was prudent to reduce the number of franchise agreements and to make use of franchisees only if it gave BA a presence in markets it did not already serve itself and where there was no prospect of providing such a service profitably through its mainline operation.

The decision to open Heathrow to all newcomers in 1991 – other than those governed by Bermuda II – angered BA's chairman Lord King, who stopped British Airways ' donations to the Conservative Party in protest.

In 1993 BA's PR director, David Burnside, published an article in BA News, British Airways ' internal magazine, which argued that Branson's protests against British Airways were a publicity stunt.

This was a tongue-in-cheek challenge to BA's traditional role as the UK's flag carrier.

Eddington replaced Robert Ayling, involved in the dirty tricks affair, who was dismissed by Lord Marshall, the long-serving BA chairman and Ayling's mentor, on behalf of BA's main institutional shareholders after BA had its first net loss since privatisation during Ayling's time during its 1999 / 2000 financial year.

However, from 1989 McLaren and Yanni further arranged the Flower Duet and it featured in BA's " World's favourite Airline " global advertising campaign of the 1980s and 1990s.

BA's Concordes carried registrations of G-BOAA to G-BOAG.

) The A318 is the smallest airliner to operate transatlantic since BA's corporate predecessor, BOAC, began transatlantic jet flights on 4 October 1958, with the De Havilland Comet 4.

In 2004 Ford introduced the Territory crossover SUV which was based upon the BA's engine, floorpan and IRS.

And in Eweida v British Airways plc a lady who wished to wear a cross claimed that BA's instruction to remove it was indirectly discriminatory against Christians.

In January 1993, following the settlement and investigations by BA's lawyers the board decided to sack Burnside.

Loganair continued to operate BA's BAe ATPs on these services until 28 May 2005, when further Saab 340 aircraft were purchased to replace them.

The German designs refer to the BA subsidiary Deutsche BA, and the Australian designs to the BA's alliance with Qantas.

Caledonian Airways was eventually sold to UK tour operator Inspirations in 1995, marking BA's exit from the mainstream inclusive tour ( IT ) market.

Under this arrangement the CityFlyer aircraft would be painted in full BA livery with interiors and cabin layout conforming to BA's contemporary, standard two-class European product.