British Asia Airways

British Asia Airways
A British Asia Airways Boeing 747-400 at Heathrow Airport in 1994
IATA ICAO Call sign
BR BAW SPEEDBIRD
Founded20 January 1993 (1993-01-20)
Commenced operations29 March 1993 (1993-03-29)
Ceased operationsDecember 2001 (2001-12)
HubsHeathrow
Taoyuan
Focus citiesLondon
Taipei
Frequent-flyer programExecutive Club
AllianceOneworld
Fleet size3
Parent companyBritish Airways
HeadquartersTaipei, Taiwan
British Asia Airways
Traditional Chinese英亞航空
Simplified Chinese英亚航空
Literal meaningEngland Asia Aviation
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinYīng Yà Hángkōng
Wade–GilesYing Ya Hang-k'ung
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationYīng A Hòhnghūng
JyutpingJing1 Aa3 Hong4hung1
Southern Min
Hokkien POJEng A Hâng-khong

British Asia Airways (Chinese: 英亞航空) was a subsidiary of British Airways founded due to the legal status of Taiwan and territory disputes with China in order to allow British Airways to continue flying to Taiwan from the United Kingdom.

History

Due to political sensitivities, national airlines operating flights to China were not permitted to fly to Taiwan.[1][2] Similar arrangements were made by other airlines, such as Japan Airlines, KLM, Qantas,[3] Swissair and Air France. Lufthansa provided service to Taipei under the name of its then subsidiary, Condor.

British Asia Airways commenced operations in March 1993 with Boeing 747-400s repainted with the Union Flag tail fin replaced by the Chinese characters 英亞 (Hanyu Pinyin: Yīng Yà; that translates as "British Asia").[4][5] The airline flew between Taipei and Hong Kong using the code BR, which BA had inherited from British Caledonian, while the flight from London used BA.[6]

The airline ceased operations after British Airways ceased flights to Taipei in December 2001.[7]

See also

Airlines created for political reasons:

References

  1. ^ Calder, Simon (23 April 1993). "Special Report on Long-Haul Air Travel: 'Air Asia' goes from strength to strength: Simon Calder looks at the growing success of the Eastern travel industry". The Independent. London.
  2. ^ "Why Taiwan is still an [sic] unique escape". The Independent. London. 16 June 2007. Archived from the original on 19 May 2008.
  3. ^ Robert Storey (1998). Taiwan. Lonely Planet. p. 166. ISBN 978-0-86442-634-5.
  4. ^ BA to Taiwan Australian Aviation issue 85 April 1993 page 23
  5. ^ Explore our past: 1990 - 1999 British Airways
  6. ^ "Something to declare: A likely story". The Independent. London. 14 September 1996.
  7. ^ Explore our past: 2000 - Present British Airways

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