January: British Airways announced the introduction of a new cabin, World Traveller Plus. The cabin would offer more space and facilities than World Traveller for a premium to the full World Traveller fare. Services between London and New York JFK were to be fully embodied with both the Club World 'Lounge in the Sky', the world's first fully flat bed in business class, and World Traveller Plus by Summer 2000.
British Airways took delivery of its first two Boeing 777 extended range aircraft.
British Airways completed the £17m (R168m) purchase of an 18.3% shareholding in Comair, its franchise partner in Southern Africa.
British Airways agreed to sell Galileo UK to Galileo International Inc.
British Airways launched the world's first commercial interactive TV service offered by an airline. The service was to appear within the interactive TV travel sections of the UK cable companies Cable & Wireless Communications, ntl and Telewest.
February: British Airways announced its e-business strategy, comprising e-Commerce, e-Working, e-Procurement and e-Ventures. E-Procurement was targeted to increase on-line purchasing in the UK from 25% to 80% by March 2002, saving more than £175m on the airline's £3.7 billion a year purchasing spend. E-Working was to transform the way the company carried out its business internally. E-Ventures included three new on-line ventures, in which up to £100m of investment was planned over the following two years. These would be an on-line travel agency; a lifestyle portal; and a significant expansion of the on-line activities of Air Miles.
British Airways and Qantas announced the introduction of new services between the UK and Australia. Together, the airlines were to offer four daily services between London and Sydney. Qantas would also add a second daily service between Melbourne and London. Frequencies between Singapore and Perth were to rise to 18 per week, with Singapore-Brisbane frequencies rising to 11 per week. These legs were to be operated by Qantas 767 aircraft and would offer more connections to London via Singapore. To support the new schedules, Qantas was to lease from British Airways seven Boeing 767 aircraft, released as a result of BA’s new fleet strategy.
The oneworld® alliance announced the formation of a central management team to drive future growth and the launch of new customer services and benefits. It would be led by Peter Buecking, who was to step down from his role as Sales and marketing director with Cathay Pacific Airways. As oneworld managing partner, he would report to the alliance's governing board, comprising of the chief executives of the member airlines.
March: British Airways completed its acquisition of 9% of the shares in Iberia, at a total of Ptas41 billion (£155m). If the price of the shares in Iberia offered through its public flotation were less, the sum paid by British Airways was to be reduced accordingly.
British Airways and Cathay Pacific signed a codeshare agreement, adding Cathay's CX code on British Airways' flights between Heathrow with Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester.
April: Six major world airlines, including British Airways, announced the formation of a company to create and operate an internet marketplace, linking airlines worldwide with sellers of airline-related goods and services. The company would handle approximately $32 billion of the six airlines' supply chain business annually. The other founding member airlines were American Airlines, Air France, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines.
British Airways announced it was to transfer management of its flight booking, departure control, inventory and related information systems to Amadeus.
British Airways teamed up with GetThere.com, the leading supplier of internet-based business-to-business travel systems in the US, to launch a new on-line business travel management system. The private access website was available to travel agents for their medium to small sized corporate clients and also to corporate customers who wished to book directly.
Following extensive consultation with trade bodies and UK travel agents, British Airways announced the payment levels for the agents' remuneration scheme, which in 2001 was to replace the standard seven 7% payment. Payments were to be higher for longhaul than for shorthaul, and for full fare flexible tickets than restricted tickets to reflect the increased workload.
May: British Airways sold its 86% shareholding in the parent company of Air Liberté to Taitbout Antibes BV. British Airways' net cash proceeds were FFr457m (£40m). Accounting rules required goodwill previously written off to be reinstated, leading to a loss on disposal of approximately £56m. The net effect of the disposal was to increase reserves by £117m, and eliminate the continuing trading losses of Air Liberté.
In conjunction with ten other major airlines, British Airways announced the creation of the first European, multi-airline, on-line travel agency. The new site would offer the public access to the most up-to-date fare information, including the airlines' lowest branded fares. Passengers would also be able to book hotels, car hire, insurance and other travel services through the site.
British Airways sold its 14.1% stake in Hogg Robinson to the management buy-out consortium, leading to a £4.9m profit on disposal.
British Airways rolled out a free on-line information service for leisure and business travel agencies. This gave give the UK travel trade extranet capability, allowing the agent to view product and service information, special promotions, training information and an on-line service to enable agents to talk to the trade query centre.
1 May: Rod Eddington joined British Airways as Chief executive, succeeding Robert Ayling. Previously Mr. Eddington was Managing director of Cathay Pacific and Executive chairman of Ansett.
June: With the entry into service of the ninth Airbus A319 at Birmingham, the last Boeing 737-236 aircraft was retired from the Eurohub terminal.
British Airways and LanChile announced a codesharing agreement. Due to start in August, LanChile would operate connections between Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile, replacing British Airways' service on that sector, which had struggled to make a profit since introduction in 1993.
Canadian Airlines International withdrew from the oneworld alliance. oneworld airlines continued to provide services to seven Canadian cities with 64 daily flights.
British Airways consolidated its leisure activities into one division, to offer an integrated range of leisure products sold through all distribution channels, including travel agents, tour operators, British Airways Telesales, Travel Shops and ba.com.
British Airways renewed its franchise agreement with GB Airways for a further eight years. The Gatwick-based carrier had been a franchise carrier since 1995.
July: The embodiment of Club World flat beds was completed for the Heathrow to JFK route.
British Airways launched a trial offering on-line check-in for its top corporate customers via the British Airways extranet. The system allowed customers to check in and select seats from home or the office up to 24 hours before departure. If the trial proved successful, the service was to be offered to the top 200 corporate customers by the end of March 2001.
The British Airways Executive Club was relaunched with an enhanced range of benefits. In October, BA Miles would replace Air Miles as the mileage currency for UK Executive Club members. Members would be able to earn miles on discount economy fares for the first time and mid and longhaul destinations were to be easier to reach. BA Miles were to focus on rewarding anyone who flies with British Airways, while Air Miles continued as the UK's leading frequent shopping reward scheme.
CityFlyer Express ordered six new Avro RJ100 jets, together with options for six more. The aircraft were to be used to upgrade selected routes currently operated by ATR aircraft, as well as introduce some new routes on to the CityFlyer network. Delivery of the aircraft was scheduled from November 2000 through to April 2001.
National Jet Italia, a start-up carrier, became the 11th member of the British Airways franchise family, flying from Rome to Palermo four times daily.
August: The new Club World flying beds were now available on the Hong Kong route. The seats had been well-received by customers on the Heathrow to New York JFK route, with a significant rise in customer satisfaction ratings for cabin crew, catering, sleep, privacy, comfort and space.
World Traveller Plus was now available to be booked between London Heathrow and New York JFK, Hong Kong and San Francisco for services from 29 October.
British Airways cancelled all Concorde operations after the loss of an Air France aircraft near Paris Charles de Gaulle on 25 July. British Airways remained optimistic that services would resume at some point. As a result of the suspension of Concorde operations, an extra 32 new Club World seats were to be available on two daily Heathrow to New York JFK services from mid-September.
October: Following the completion of the Club Europe embodiment on its aircraft, British Airways increased the baggage allowance for the cabin. Passengers could now take two pieces of hand baggage weighing up to 18kgs on board, doubling the previous allowance.
AirNewco, an airline-led B2B initiative which included British Airways, and MyAircraft, a B2B exchange led by aerospace manufacturers, announced their intent to combine their efforts into one venture.
British Airways launched a new corporate rewards program for small to medium sized businesses, called On Business, following a successful nine months trial period. Each time an employee of a member company booked an eligible fare with British Airways, the company earnt points which could be exchanged for a range of business travel rewards, such as free flights, chauffeur drives to or from UK airports, Heathrow and Gatwick Express train tickets and hotel vouchers.
British Airways and Iberia announced further codesharing agreements. BA codes were added to Iberia services between Gatwick and Oviedo, Palma and Ibiza and between Palma and Mahon. The IB code was added to BA flights between Gatwick and Faro, Oporto, Palma, Tenerife and Bermuda and between Heathrow and Faro.
November: British Airways announced that it was to restructure its operations at Gatwick into a largely point-to-point business. British Airways also announced its intention to sell Go, its no frills subsidiary, and to better integrate its various shorthaul operations.
British Airways unveiled its new-look First cabin. The investment included new interiors, improvements to seat cushioning and bedding, and in-seat telephones and laptop power.
British Airways and Finnair extended their codesharing agreement to include a longhaul route. Finnair's AY flight code was added to one of British Airways' two daily services between Heathrow and Toronto.
December: British Airways announced the results of its review of Gatwick operations, marking a shift from previous attempts to build Gatwick as a transfer hub. The plan, which was to be implemented over two years, included reducing longhaul destinations served from Gatwick from 43 to around 25, through cutting some destinations and relocating other services to Heathrow. Gatwick's shorthaul business would be refocused on serving the needs of London and South East England, and the consolidation of City Flyer operations in the North Terminal.
Thomas Cook and British Airways announced that they planned to merge their existing UK scheduled businesses, Thomas Cook Holidays and British Airways Holidays outbound business, to create a 50/50 joint venture company.
British Airways appointed Mike Street, the airline's Director for Customer Service and Operations, to the company's board.
Zambian Air Services (ZAS) became a British Airways franchise company. ZAS was to begin flying from Johannesburg to N'dola twice a week and from Johannesburg to Lusaka three times a week.
January: British Airways began modifying its Concorde aircraft, with the hope of resuming services later in the year. £17m was to be spent on safety-related modifications and £14m on upgrading the onboard product.
British Airways announced large cuts in many of its fares, effective from 1 April. The adjustments to fares reflected the changes in payments to agents, following the introduction of its new agents' remuneration scheme.
British Airways announced the launch of its new Value Pass, enabling passengers to buy full fare domestic and Club Europe e-tickets in bulk at a 10-18% discount.
British Airways and Iberia announced the expansion of their codesharing agreement to cover four destinations in Spain served by Iberia subsidiary Air Nostrum. From February, the BA code would be added to Air Nostrum/Iberia flights between Madrid and the regional cities of Almeria, Murcia, Pamplona and Zaragoza.
February: British Airways re-opened its First class lounge at London Heathrow's Terminal 4 for premium passengers, ensuring unrivalled comfort and luxury on the ground and in the air. A new Concorde Room designed by Sir Terence Conran was also opened in the airline's Lounge Pavilion at Terminal 4, in anticipation of a resumption of supersonic services later in the year.
March: British Airways confirmed it intended to make a recommended offer for all of the issued shares in British Regional Air Lines PLC (BRAL). The offer was subject to formal approval by the Office of Fair Trading. The purchase was a further step in British Airways' previously announced plans to co-ordinate better its various shorthaul businesses and reduce fragmentation among subsidiary and franchise partners.
The Airline Group, including British Airways, was named by the UK Government as strategic partner for National Air Traffic Services' public-private partnership. The group announced plans for £1 billion worth of investment.
April: British Airways and Iberia announced that they were to extend their codesharing arrangements to long-distance routes. British Airways' code was to be added to Iberia's six weekly flights between Madrid and Lima. Iberia's code was to be placed on five weekly British Airways flights between London Heathrow and Bangkok.
Australia became the latest country to get the Next Generation products; the Club World flat beds and World Traveller Plus. Aircraft flying to Melbourne and Sydney were embodied with the new 21st century products.
May: British Airways announced that customers could save money each time they buy a ticket from the airline's website - www.ba.com. Passengers would benefit from a £3 discount for domestic and shorthaul flights and £5 for longhaul journeys. The discount applied to all bookings to and from the UK.
June: British Airways sold its no-frills subsidiary "Go" for £100m to private equity company 3i.
British Airways celebrated 10 years of operations at Birmingham's Eurohub.
July: British Airways Concorde G-BOAF flew for the first time since modifications were made as part of the programme to return the supersonic airliner safely to service.
11 September: Possibly the worst day in aviation history. Terrorists hijacked two United Airlines and two American Airlines flights, crashing two of the aircraft into the World Trade Centre's twin towers in New York, and a third into the Pentagon in Washington. The fourth aircraft crashed in woodland in Pennsylvania. No British Airways aircraft were directly involved, although 22 aircraft were diverted. More than 4,000 people were killed. Staff all over British Airways volunteered to ease disruption in the terminals as chaos reigned following many cancellations and aircraft diversions.
Following the attacks British Airways drew up a plan of action. A Business Response Scheme to achieve 7,000 workforce reductions was approved. A reduction in flying of 10% was also announced. Other measures included a review of spending on new projects, aircraft modifications, investment in products and a moratorium on IT expenditure.
Concorde's Certificate of Airworthiness was returned by the Civil Aviation Authority and its French equivalent, DGAC. It marked the end of an intensive programme of work by the manufacturers, regulatory authorities, British Airways and Air France to ensure Concorde returned safely into service.
October: British Airways combined its two UK regional subsidiaries, British Airways Regional (BAR) and CitiExpress, creating the second largest regional airline in Europe. The combined regional business would have a turnover in excess of £600m and a fleet of 92 aircraft serving more than 120 routes. The new entity would employ around 3,200 people and carry some 5m passengers each year.
Concorde tickets went on sale and were snapped up in preparation for the flagship's return to commercial service.
British Airways launched a new twice-daily service between Manchester and Zurich. The flight, operated by British Airways CitiExpress, the wholly owned British Airways regional subsidiary, provided a Club Europe and Euro Traveller service.
British Airways launched a promotion to get people flying again, with 50,000 Club class tickets up for grabs for Executive Club members, enabling them to take a companion free. Five million cut-price tickets also went on sale to destinations all over Europe with children able to fly for free.
British Airways won the prestigious Grand Prix Award for International Design Effectiveness for the new Club World seat which turned into a six-foot fully flat bed. The award was given in recognition of how the product had revolutionised business travel. The seat also won the best consumer product award.
November: Armour-plated cockpit doors were fitted on all British Airways aircraft as an extra security measure.
7 November: Concorde returned to commercial service. G-BOAF landed in New York for the first time since July the previous year. The atmosphere on board was described as "electric".
Heathrow Terminal 5 was given the go-ahead by the UK Government. It was due to open in 2007.
December: Concorde services returned to Barbados. British Airways was to operate a once a week scheduled supersonic service to the island from London Heathrow. The average flight time between London Heathrow and Barbados was 3 hours and 50 minutes. A subsonic aircraft such as a Boeing 747, flying the same distance, averaged a flight time of 8 hours 50 minutes.
British Airways suspended services from Hong Kong to Taipei and Manila. British Airways and its oneworld alliance partner, Cathay Pacific Airways, announced an expansion to their codesharing agreement to cover Kuala Lumpur, Auckland and eleven destinations in Europe.
January: British Airways increased services to Nassau and Grand Cayman for the summer to cope with increased demand. The extra weekly service meant an additional Boeing 767 was put on the route to operate to the Caribbean islands.
The US Department of Transportation announced the regulatory conditions for the proposed alliance between British Airways and American Airlines, which involved giving up 224 Heathrow slots. Rod Eddington, British Airways' chief executive and Don Carty, chairman and chief executive, American Airlines said the regulatory price was too high.
February: The chief executives of the eight oneworld member airlines - Aer Lingus, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, LanChile and Qantas - underlined their commitment to the alliance by accelerating plans to deepen working relationships between the partners. The new developments included a major expansion of codesharing agreements between the airlines.
British Airways unveiled a major package of measures designed to return the airline to profitability, following a wide-ranging analysis of its business, led by chief executive Rod Eddington. The review - known as Future Size and Shape - showed the measures that would need to be introduced to meet £650m of annualised cost savings. They included 5,800 further job losses in addition to 7,200 announced previously with total head office and support staff to be reduced by more than a third and a significant restructuring of the short haul business to compete with no frills carriers.
March: The wholly owned BA subsidiary BA CitiExpress was officially launched, operating to 48 destinations from 26 airports.
Passengers benefited from travelling with a full service regional airline that offered high frequency schedules to some of Europe's top cities. BA CitiExpress was created from the integration of two wholly owned subsidiaries, Brymon Airways and British Regional Airlines.
April: British Airways signed a deal with Warburg Pincus to enable the private equity investor to acquire a majority shareholding in World Network Services (WNS), the airline's India-based data management company. The sale of WNS was put forward to enhance the future growth prospects and development of the company and allowed British Airways to maintain a meaningful stake, whilst pursuing its ongoing strategy to focus on core business.
The outcome of the Future Size and Shape in the regions was unveiled. BA CitiExpress had undertaken a review to ensure the profitability of its services at airports throughout the UK. They announced the withdrawal of 12 loss-making routes, launched two new routes, increased frequency on nine and reduced staffing by the equivalent of 500 full time positions. The changes were to bring £20m cost savings each year by 2004.
May: BA launched a summer promotion for Concorde return fares to New York. The special Concorde tickets went on sale for £3,999 representing savings of up to £3,867. The tickets were on sale throughout May.
British Airways signed a deal with easyJet for the sale of Deutsche BA (DBA), a subsidiary which flew exclusively in Germany. Under the terms of the deal BA granted easyJet the option to buy 100% of DBA by 31 March 2003. The deal was potentially worth between £18.3m (30m euros) and £28m (46m euros), dependent on when easyJet exercised the option.
June: British Airways and Finnair expanded their current codesharing arrangements by adding destinations in South Africa, Canada and the UK regions. The Finnair code was added to BA operated flights from London to Johannesburg, Cape Town, Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto. British Airways also added its code to selected flights operated by Finnair.
British Airways cut European air fares by up to 80% on 42 routes. Saturday night stay and advance purchase restrictions were scrapped and prices slashed to from £59 return on domestic routes and £69 return to Europe. More than 50,000 air tickets at the lowest fare would be available every month on the 71 domestic and European routes, which also would have lower flexible fares and fewer booking restrictions.
July: A World Traveller Plus promotion was launched on 11 US destinations for passengers to travel for an extra £150 for a one-way upgrade in the airline's premier economy cabin. A return ticket to New York, Boston and Washington with a one-way upgrade to World Traveller Plus started from £399 including taxes (saving up to £74).
British Airways and its oneworld partner, Iberia, announced that they would be expanding their codesharing arrangements, resulting in new international destinations for each carrier. From 12 July, the Iberia code was added to connecting flights operated by British Airways from London Heathrow to Budapest, Nairobi and Singapore. At the same time, British Airways added its code to connecting flights operated by Iberia from its main hub in Madrid for travel on to Havana in Cuba and Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.
British Airways and SN Brussels Airlines announced that they were entering into a commercial relationship, subject to regulatory approvals. The agreement between the two carriers was to enable the SN Brussels flight code to be placed on all British Airways services between Brussels and London from 27 October. In addition to the codeshare, new ticketing arrangements were put in place to allow customers to benefit from improved access to each airline's network.
British Airways announced changes to its winter schedule for 2002, which included increased services to profitable destinations and further route transfers from London Gatwick to London Heathrow. These transfers were in line with the airline's Future Size and Shape strategy, unveiled in February 2002. Services to San Diego, Denver and Phoenix in the USA and Harare in Zimbabwe and Lusaka in Zambia moved from Gatwick to Heathrow's Terminal 4, a move which concentrated British Airways' African network at Heathrow. Flights to New York's JFK airport from Heathrow increased from six to seven daily sub-sonic services.
August: The launch of British Airways' winter longhaul sale saw thousands of discounted flight tickets to 49 far flung destinations, offering savings of up to £204. Prices started from just £239 for a return ticket to New York, Boston and Atlanta including taxes. Prices were reduced by up to 80% on flights to Spain, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary and Luxembourg, completing the launch by the airline of year-round low fares on 170 key routes to Europe.
November: British Airways and American Airlines filed an application with the US Department of Transportation seeking US regulatory approval to offer certain codeshare services permitted under the current provisions of the US-UK air services agreement. The arrangement was to enable British Airways to place its code on American's flights beyond British Airways' US gateway cities to points in the US, Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America. The application submitted by the two carriers excluded codesharing on each other's transatlantic services between the US and London.
December: British Airways switched its aircraft order with Airbus to receive 10 A321 aircraft instead of 12 A318 aircraft and three A319 aircraft. The airline's capital spend with Airbus for the orders placed in 1998 and 1999 remained unchanged. The move came as part of BA's fleet simplification strategy to base its Airbus fleet at London Heathrow and Gatwick airports and re-deploy its fleet of 16 110-seat RJ100 aircraft from Gatwick to British Airways CitiExpress at regional airports. British Airways announced that it would be simplifying and strengthening its UK regional operation.
British Airways CitiExpress was to operate for the first time from London City in April 2003 with the launch of three new routes. In addition British Airways was to give its key Manchester network a major boost with the introduction of three new routes and extra capacity. British Airways CitiExpress also signed a heads of terms with Eastern Airways with the intention of transferring its 12 strong fleet of 29-seater Jetstream 41 aircraft and its associated engineering hangar at Glasgow to the Humberside-based airline. This was the first part of an accelerated strategy to move to an all jet regional operation.
CitiExpress was to withdraw from 21 regional routes and would no longer fly from Cardiff and Leeds-Bradford airports.
January: British Airways announced new routes from Gatwick and Manchester and increased services on routes to Europe.
February: A three month internet trial began on a British Airways 747-400 aircraft, on services between London Heathrow and New York using Connexion by Boeing broadband system. Passengers could plug in their laptop from their seat and access personal and work emails, corporate intranets and the web.
British Airways, its oneworld partner Iberia and franchise partner GB Airways, announced new codeshare routes on services between London Heathrow and Seville, Valencia, Malaga, Santiago de Compostela and Bilbao and services between London, Gatwick and Madrid, Barcelona and Bilbao.
British Airways and its oneworld partner Cathay Pacific Airways increased their code-share destinations with the announcement of extra code-share flights to Seoul, Copenhagen and Lisbon.
April: British Airways announced the retirement of its Concorde fleet of seven aircraft with effect from the end of October 2003.
British Airways launches a new direct air link from Glasgow to London City operated by its wholly owned subsidiary, British Airways CitiExpress, using 110 seat RJ100 jet aircraft. This followed the launch of flights from London City to Paris and Frankfurt at the end of March.
May: British Airways signed an agreement to sell its wholly owned German subsidiary dba to Intro Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, the Nuremburg-based aviation consultancy and investment company.
June: British Airways was named as the "best low cost airline" in an annual Guardian newspaper poll.
July: New services from Gatwick to Turin and Dubrovnik were announced.
August: The airline unveiled its first set of codeshare flights with oneworld partner American Airlines which would ultimately add more than 100 new destinations to its network. These routes included Raleigh Durham, Nashville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Minneapolis St Paul, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Panama City and San Antonio.
24 October: British Airways withdrew Concorde, signalling the closure of the world’s only supersonic passenger services. The last scheduled commercial flight was BA2 from JFK operated by G-BOAG. BA’s fleet of seven aircraft were dispersed for preservation at Barbados (AE), Edinburgh (AA), Filton (AF), Manchester (AC), New York (AD) and Seattle (AG) with one (AB) remaining at Heathrow.
October: British Airways introduced the award-winning Club World flat bed as well as World Traveller Plus, its premier economy cabin, on services from London Gatwick to Houston, Dallas and Bermuda operated by Boeing 777s.
December: British Airways, Iberia Airlines and BA franchise partner GB Airways were given exemption from competition legislation by the European Commission. The exemption allowed them to share airport facilities, extend code-sharing services, coordinate sales and marketing programmes, undertake joint network planning, coordinate capacity and pricing and cargo services.
January: British Airways' first transatlantic codeshare flights with American Airlines to and from the UK regions opened for sale on daily flights from Manchester to New York and Chicago.
February: The airline announced the launch of wireless internet connections at 80 of its main customer lounges around the world giving instant internet and email access to users.
March: The airline's Heathrow flight switch programme was completed. Seven shorthaul services transferred from Heathrow Terminal 1 to Terminal 4 and five longhaul services transferred from Terminal 4 to Terminal 1 making it more convenient for transfer passengers to connect between longhaul and shorthaul flights.
A new feature on ba.com was launched enabling customers to request their own seats and special meals.
April: British Airways unveilled its new uniform created by leading British fashion designer Julien Macdonald for more than 25,000 staff including flight crew, cabin crew, dispatchers and check-in agents.
Customers flying to Australia with British Airways and Qantas are able to use e-tickets for the first time.
June: A record number of British Airways' customers used the online check-in facilities on ba.com, with more than 100,000 checking in from the comfort of their own home.
May: Her Majesty the Queen visited Heathrow Airport to mark the tenth anniversary of Change for Good, the fundraising partnership between British Airways and UNICEF which has raised over £18 million from donations of loose change from British Airways customers. The money has directly benefited UNICEF's work to improve the lives of children in over 50 developing countries.
July: Lord Marshall of Knightsbridge retired as Chairman of British Airways at the company’s AGM. He was succeeded by Martin Broughton, previously the airline’s Vice-Chairman.
August: The Joint Services Agreement between British Airways and Qantas on the kangaroo routes is given draft approval for a five-year extension by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
December: British Airways launched its first drive-through check-in facility for Club World passengers and a new exclusive check-in and lounge for First passengers at Grantley Adams Airport in Barbados.
March: Willie Walsh was announced as British Airways' new chief executive officer. Previously CEO of Aer Lingus, he would begin as chief executive designate on May 3. It had been announced that Rod Eddington would retire at the end of September at which stage Mr Walsh would become chief executive.
May: Prime Minister Tony Blair signed a British Airways Boeing 747 in support of London's bid to host the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. British Airways, a premier partner of the London 2012 bid, planned to collect in excess of 100,000 signatures on the aircraft that would carry the bid team to Singapore for the decision vote by the International Olympic Committee.
June: A five times a week service was launched between London Heathrow and Shanghai's Pudong airport operated by Boeing 777 aircraft. Services from London Heathrow to Beijing increased from four to six times per week and from 17 to 21 times a week to Hong Kong.
September: Rod Eddington, CEO, retired and was succeeded by Willie Walsh. Mike Street, OBE, director of customer service and operations, retired after 42 years service.
A new voluntary scheme was launched to enable customers to help offset the carbon dioxide emissions from their flights by making a contribution to an environmental trust.
October: British Airways' winter schedule included increased services from London Heathrow to India including a new service to Bangalore, twice daily flights to Mumbai, and six flights a week to Chennai. Flights from Birmingham to Rome and Vienna, operated by British Airways CitiExpress, were suspended.
November: Talks on a new transatlantic aviation agreement between the EU and US ended with some progress on aspects of the regulatory framework. No agreement was reached on market access and lifting restrictions on foreign ownership in US carriers. Interested parties were asked to comment and a final decision is expected in March 2006.
British Airways and The Tussauds Group signed a memorandum of understanding agreeing the sale of the airline's entire interests in the British Airways London Eye to the company for £95 million.
December: The withdrawal of BA's daily service from London Heathrow to Melbourne via Singapore from March 25, 2006, was announced. Melbourne flights will transfer to Qantas as part of the Joint Services Agreement
