Travellers' Checks | Founded in 1974, British Airways turns 100 next year – how exactly does that work?

Plus, new Dubai-based owner of New York’s Plaza Hotel hopes to turn it into a global luxury brand, like its famous Midtown Manhattan neighbours – Waldorf Astoria and St Regis

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A British Airways Airbus A380 lands at Heathrow Airport. Picture: AFP

Adam Nebbs

Published: 7:30pm, 23 May 2018Updated: 5:23am, 27 Sep 2018

Although only established in 1974, British Airways will mark its 100th anniversary next year. The starting point from which the carrier measures this unlikely longevity is August 25, 1919 – the day a tiny airline called Aircraft Transport and Travel began the world’s first scheduled international air service, from London to Paris.

Aircraft Transport and Travel went bankrupt the following year and was merged into the new Daimler Airway, which in turn merged with three airlines in 1924 to form Imperial Airways. In 1939, that airline was incorporated into the British Overseas Airways Corporation, which merged with British European Airways to form British Airways, on March 31, 1974. And that’s the simplified version.

A year in advance of this fanciful centenary, a two-part BBC documentary series called British Airways: 100 years in the Skyaired in Britain this month. A new book titled British Airways: 100 Years of Aviation Posters was published around the same time. The documentary is likely to appear on YouTube at some point, but the book, containing 200 posters featuring, one would imagine, mostly British Airways’ predecessors, can be ordered at Amazon.co.uk.

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A 1912 postcard showing the Plaza Hotel, in New York.

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