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
British European Airways BEA ceased to exist as a separate legal entity on 1 April 1974 when the merger with BOAC to form British Airways (BA) took effect. However the name was revived by British Airways from 1991 to 2008 when it renamed its already existing subsidiary British Airways Tour Operations Limited as British European Airways Limited. British Airways Tour Operations Limited was itself founded in 1935 as an air travel company under the name Silver Wing Surface Arrangements Limited. With the outbreak of war in September 1939 all commercial and private flying within the UK had been severely restricted by the government