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I grew up next to LHR and there was much BEA BOAC rivalry . In practice however they were two completely different operations. There was intense rivalry and at the time that spilled over into often open dislike between the two corporations and their employees. Those attitudes didnt change all that much for years after BA was founded and the two carried on as short haul and long haul.
BOAC links with Empire , and America lots of weird schedules where the route to HK or Tokyo changed everyday . long haul multi stop routes all over the place and no doubt well earned layovers aircraft and crews away from LHR days at a time.
BEA a business service , almost all western European capitals multiple times daily , Fog 100ft cloudbase snow much of the year , Fog in the Po valley and Ruhr, snow and Ice in Scandi land and the east . Not a lot of glamour aside from Nice or Athens . Domestic shuttles and virtual ones like Dublin Paris and Amsterdam , and as the saying went Back Every Afternoon.
So hard to compare I think average flight time for BA flight crew was probably 90 mins compared to 5-6 hours on BOAC .
Dubious management practices at both airlines , according to gossip where I lived rather too many people from the handshake fraternity in both places and obviously areas where in spite of differences it could have been one airline, Air France Lufti etc managed ok as one company and were very similar in scale and reach to the combined British airlines.
But for the time both did pretty well and represented Britain quite well too , financially BEA seemed to hover around break even making some profit some eyars losing abit others . BOAC tended to make bigger profits but also bigger losses . BEA had moor accidents but probably 6-8 times as many landings and lots and lots of low visibility operations . BEA /short haul only ever had British Aircraft one the Daks had gone and the Tridents didnt match the economics of what a mix of DC9 and 727s might have done for them.
It might have made more sense for a single flight crew pool but at that time I am sure that would never have flown (!!)
Overall a reflection of the times , its now fashionable to deride thatera of nationalised industries and corporations and they ahd their faults for sure. But they were British most of our utilities and Infrastructure now isnt, (is BA British , Spanish , irish or what) and most had borne the great burden of providing the infrastructure of a modern Britain post W2 whichat the time was beyond the capacity or capability of private capital. Both airlines did a good job for the Uk by the standards of the time and bequeathed a true global business in BA to private investors