British Airways has, for the first time brought together its four heritage liveried aircraft, which were repainted to mark the airline’s centenary this year, alongside an A319 in the current Chatham Dockyard livery. The scene captured a rare image of some of the airline’s most iconic designs parked together.
The photos captured also mark the fact that 50,000 customers have already flown around the globe on the four heritage liveries since they re-joined the fleet, with the Boeing 747s having travelled to destinations such as New York, Cape Town, Dubai and Lagos, while the BEA liveried Airbus A319 has flown far and wide across the airlines’ UK and European network to cities including Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Milan, Zurich and Amsterdam.
Alex Cruz, British Airways’ Chairman and CEO, who spoke on the initiative said: “The excitement and pride that we have witnessed from customers and colleagues as these heritage liveries, which we painted to mark our centenary, have flown around the globe has been unparalleled. Social media has been fired up with images from travellers all over the world when they have spotted the aircraft and as some 50,000 people have now flown on them since they arrived back in the fleet we wanted to capture a special photo to share with them.”
The four heritage aircraft, which were in scheduled downtime and parked at the airline’s engineering base, were lined up alongside an aircraft with the current Chatham Dockyard design. The painstaking process of arranging them for the photo took over two hours. The retro designs are part of a special series to mark British Airways’ centenary, as the airline celebrates its past while looking to the future and can be followed using tracking website Flightradar24, which features special images of the aircraft. As part of its centenary year, British Airways is hosting a range of activities and events.
