Some people look upon April 1 as April Fool’s Day, an opportunity to play jokes on family and friends. For many businesses, it is the first day of their financial year and a time for serious reflection on the previous year as well as anticipating the results of decisions made to make new ones better.
On April 1, 1974, the former staff of British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and British European Airways (BEA) awoke to find themselves employees AVIATION IMAGE NETWORK/SIMON GREGORY of British Airways, following the merger of the former airline pair. A brand new era of British civil aviation had begun.
The bringing together of the two state-owned carriers was not a simple process. Early discussions on the possibility of merging went as far back as 1953, just seven years after BEA was founded. Ten years later, Hansard (the official record of UK Parliamentary debates), stated that in a debate in the House of Commons on May 20, 1963, Wingfield Digby, MP, “asked the Minister of Aviation [Neil Marten] whether he will institute a full inquiry… into the operation of the British Overseas Airways Corporation and British European Airways”.