British Airways The key trends for the British Airways Plc Group are shown below. On the merger with Iberia, the accounting reference date was changed from 31 March to 31 December; figures below are therefore for the years to 31 March up to 2010, for the nine months to 31 December 2010, and for the years to 31 December thereafter: Staff working for British Airways are represented by a number of trade unions, pilots are represented by British Air Line Pilots' Association, cabin crew by British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association (a branch of Unite the Union), while other branches of Unite
History of British Airways 2008 British Airways announced that it had agreed to buy French airline L'Avion for . L'Avion was fully integrated with OpenSkies in 2009. On 14 March 2008 Heathrow Terminal 5, built exclusively for the use of British Airways at a cost of , was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II. Upon opening to passengers on 27 March 2008 serious problems immediately arose, many from staff confusion. The baggage handling system failed completely, resulting in seven flights departing with no baggage loaded. In the first five days, a backlog of 28,000 bags built up and over 300 flights were cancelled. Walsh