Good to hear that BA are back at LBA. Wish them well with the route.
I remember their final flights on the route back in the early 80s.....Viscounts and many of their flights in the final few days being accompanied by low level flypasts, especially those involving local based crews! Mind you in those days, starting and ending routes were quite notable occasions not like the 'here today gone tomorrow' routes of the modern era.
The route was first operated in the late 50s [?] early 60s by BKS Air Transport using DC3s. followed by Avro [Jet-Prop!] 748s. With the advent of the 'new runway' 15/33 in 1965, BA [in the form of BEA] first operated the route when a Heathrow based Viscount was used on a morning and evening rotation to supplement the BKS 748s. In around 65/66, after a period of training involving Channel Airways Viscounts, BKS started using their own Viscount 700s on the route followed by 800 series Viscounts.
Eventually BKS became Northeast Airlines and the integration with BEA began a series of name and livery changes ultimately leading to BA........ still using Viscount 800s, until BA left LBA and the reign of British Midland began.