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British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom which is based and headquartered in Waterside, near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. British Airways operates a second hub at London Gatwick Airport and a third hub, served through its fully owned subsidiary, BA CityFlyer, at London City Airport. British Airways is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations. BA's UK passengers originating at non-London airports must connect via London after British Airways discontinued all direct overseas flights from UK airports, other than Heathrow, Gatwick and London City Airports, with the sale of BA Connect to British regional carrier Flybe in 2007.

The British Airways Board was established in 1971 to control the two nationalised airline corporations, BOAC and BEA, and two much smaller regional airlines, Cambrian Airways from Cardiff and Northeast Airlines from Newcastle upon Tyne. On 31 March 1974 all four companies were dissolved to form British Airways (BA). After almost 13 years as a nationalised company, British Airways was privatised in February 1987 as part of the privatisation plan by the Conservative Government of the time. The carrier soon expanded with the acquisition of British Caledonian (BCAL) in 1987 and Gatwick-based carrier Dan-Air in 1992.

Despite being a primarily Boeing customer, British Airways placed a major order for Airbus aircraft in August 1998 with the purchase of 59 Airbus A320 family aircraft. In 2007, the carrier placed its next major order, marking the start of its long-haul fleet replacement, ordering 12 Airbus A380s and 24 Boeing 787s. The centrepiece of the airline's long-haul fleet is the Boeing 747-400; with 57 examples in service, British Airways is the largest operator of the type in the world.

The formation of Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways in 1984 began a tense relationship with BA. In 1993, the fierce rivalry led to British Airways apologising “unreservedly” for a “dirty tricks” campaign against Virgin, leading to BA paying Virgin in damages and legal costs after "one of the most bitter and protracted libel actions in aviation history".

Until 2008, British Airways was the largest airline based in the UK in terms of passenger numbers. The airline carried 34.6 million passengers in 2008 but rival UK low-cost carrier easyJet carried 44.5 million passengers in the same year, taking the title from British Airways.

On 12 November 2009, British Airways confirmed that it had reached a preliminary agreement to merge with Iberia. The merger between the two carriers will create the world's third-largest airline in terms of annual revenue and the second largest airline group in Europe. The merger was confirmed on 8 April 2010, and it is expected to be completed by the end of the year. On 14 July 2010, the European Commission gave the two carriers permission to merge and also agreed to allow American Airlines to co-operate with the merged entity on transatlantic routes to the United States of America.

British Airways is one of the founding members of the oneworld airline alliance along with four other carriers - American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Qantas and, the now defunct, Canadian Airlines. The alliance has since grown to become the third largest airline alliance, with only SkyTeam and Star Alliance being larger.

British Airways is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

In 1967 the government established a committee of inquiry into Civil Aviation under Sir Ronald Edwards. The Edwards Committee reported in 1969 with one of the recommendations being the formation of a National Air Holding Board to control finances and polices of the two government-controlled airlines, the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and British European Airways Corporation (BEA). The recommendation was enacted in 1971 with the passing of the Civil Aviation Act 1971 which formed a British Airways Board to control all the activities of the two airlines.