British European Airways - what kind of airline was it?

[Bergerie1]

Asturias and teeteringhead,

You are both right about the differences and rivalries between BEA and BOAC before the merger, the two companies were like chalk and cheese, both operationally and cuturally. After the merger, the task of combining the two operations was not easy. Many arguments and conflicts occurred within Flight Operations while trying to harmonising procedures, terminology, manuals and flight training. At the time of the merger, it is hard to think of two more disparate airlines with such entirely different operating philosophies.

BEA flew British designed aircraft. BOAC was much influenced by American aircraft, consequently, much of the terminology used was different. BEA flew only within Europe. BOAC flew worldwide. BEA pilots flew mainly short sectors, several of them in the same day on routes they knew well. BOAC pilots flew mostly longer sectors, fewer of them per day, or per month, and in much more varied operating environments. BEA’s flight planning and flight documents were simplified and tailored for their type of operation whereas BOAC’s flight planning was more sophisticated so as to extract the maximum payload/range from their aircraft. BEA pilots flew in the bad weather of northern Europe. BOAC pilots flew mainly in better weather, but had to cope with such things as the thunderstorms and monsoons of the tropics and the ice and snow of North America. BEA pilots flew in the developed countries of Europe. BOAC pilots flew in third world countries, frequently with primitive ATC, and poorly maintained navigation aids and airfields. BEA pilots flew mainly on airways with good navigation aids and mostly in radar coverage. BOAC pilots flew over oceans and deserts where there were few navigation aids, where formal navigation procedures were required and the possibility of diverting to a nearby airfield in an emergency could be difficult or even impossible.

BEA used the ‘Monitored Approach’ where one pilot flew the approach on instruments down to decision height and the other looked out for the runway to make a visual landing. In BOAC, the same pilot flew both the approach and the landing. In BEA, pilot conversion courses could be completed more quickly than in BOAC because, with frequent short sectors being flown each day, trainees were able to complete their route training in a shorter time. In BEA, most aircraft itineraries involved the aircraft returning to base each evening, whereas BOAC crews could be away for up to two weeks. In BOAC, where an aircraft might be away from base for several days out to Australia and back, aircraft needed to be dispatched from base with fewer allowable defects, they did not return to base every night where defects could be fixed.

Clearly, in the interest of efficiency in the new British Airways, unnecessary differences needed to be eliminated. Therefore, a programme of harmonisation was implemented with the aim of picking out the best practices from both airlines to produce a common operating standard. But there were many difficulties which had to be overcome in order to achieve the necessary compromises.

Also, the captain's job was different. Back in the 1960s and 70s, communications with London were primative. Therefore, as teeteringhead has said, the captain was very much on his own with regard to operational decisions and passenger care. The combination of this and the poor ATC required far more independence of mind - and, dare I say, more job satisfaction.