To me a flag carrier is the thing of the past, it is the carrier that represented a nation and inevitably with it was government owned or controlled.
Nowadays there are many airlines that represent the U.K. in different ways and to a different extent so I would say we do not have nor need a flag carrier.
However that digresses from the point I belive the poster who stressed the point that the British flag carrier was almost a Spanish national assett intended it to appear wrong or belittling, however that would be incorrect as many assetts in the U.K. are now foreign owned and controlled.
As an alternative could you say a British Flag carrier is any airline thats aircraft carry the British flag on its fuselage?
Last edited by pwalhx; 7th Jul 2012 at 18:52.