On 21 February 1944, the first civilian York ("G-AGJA"), initially built for the RAF as "MW103", received its airworthiness certificate, thus clearing its delivery shortly thereafter to the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). On 22 April 1944, the York inaugurated an initial UK-Morocco-Cairo route. Following the diversion of the first five RAF production Yorks to BOAC, it was decided to allocate a further 60 to the airline but in fact only 25 more were delivered to BOAC. Early BOAC operations were conducted in close collaboration with No. 216 Group RAF; this led to some early Yorks bearing a confusing combination of both civilian registrations and military external markings.