ex BEA and "Speedbird" callsigns

[Skipness One Echo]

I remember reading the accident report on G-AWZI over Zagreb and being surprised that the callsign of BE476 (BEwas "Bealine" even though the crash was in Sep-1976,over two/four years after BA was formed depending where you're counting from.
When did BA stop using BE and "Bealine"?

[DaveReidUK]

I can't remember exactly when it was, but I have a feeling it wasn't that long after the Zagreb collision, once all the flight numbers had been rationalised so that there wasn't any overlap (long-haul ex-BOAC routes all became BA1 to BA299, short-haul ex-BEA routes BA300 and up - which still holds true to this day).

Despite outward appearances, it took many years before the two corporations had been fully merged, and certainly as late as the early 1980s there were still discernable demarcations, not least in Engineering, between the two constituent parts. I recall frequent fireworks when the short-haul TriStars were joined by long-haul ones, but were still maintained by engineers from the former BEA side, who would never dream of addressing a captain as "Sir" (as was the BOAC custom). :O

Incidentally the Zagreb Trident 3 was Zulu Tango - not Zulu India, which still survives (well its nose, anyway) with the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust.

[Airbanda]

Callsign change was still ongoing throughout the second half of the seventies.

The Channel/Scottish and Cambrian/Northeast operations came together as Regional Division in April 76. For a while, at least at Leeds, domestic sectors were Bealine and the sole international, Dublin, was Speedbird.

One suspects confusion arose with similar flight numbers as there was a fairly rapid reversion to use of Northeast before 'Albion' was adopted in around 77/8.

[ian16th]

the sole international, Dublin, Dunno what the callsign was, but I travelled as Pax on a BA Viscount from Leeds-Bradford to Schiphol about that time.

The flight was delayed when a Pakistani gentleman was found to have a briefcase full of crisp £5 notes. This at the time of the very strict currency regulations.

I missed my connecting Finnair flight to Helsinki :sad:

[ZeBedie]

Was Albion used for the whole of BA short haul and when did it cease to be used?

[26er]

I flew the S1-11 and as I recollect the only time we used "Albion" was when operating from LHR to Newcastle i.e. the old Northeast route, and that only lasted for a short time. The German controllers quite often addressed us as "Bealine" on the IGS (Internal German Service) well after we were officially using "Speedbird".

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

And the tugs used for moving aircraft around the airfield retained the "Bealine" callsign long after the aircraft changed.

[ZeBedie]

The Albion c/s was not confined to Northeast routes.

[WHBM]

Was "Shuttle" used as the c/s for Shuttle flights from when they started ? Still used on those routes even though the Shuttle concept has gone.

[ATNotts]

Albion, and the IATA code BZ was, if I recall correctly adopted for the Scottish, Channel Islands (curiously based at BHX), Cambrian and Northeast "brands" (as we would call them these days).

Having reorganised and got shot of those meaningless (save for Scottish) divisions, BA tried the same daft trick the "British Airways Birmingham" and "British Airways Manchester" with the 737-200 fleets being titled accordingly some years later - before deciding that the UK regions didn't really qualify as being "British" and the dumped them, save for the London connections!

[DaveReidUK]

Was "Shuttle" used as the c/s for Shuttle flights from when they started ?I'm pretty sure that the Shuttle callsign came in at the start of operations in 1975.

Still used on those routes even though the Shuttle concept has gone. Though BA still use the term "Domestic Shuttle" in their marketing:

British Airways - Domestic Shuttle (http://www.britishairways.com/travel/domesticsmile/public/en_gb)

[MARK9263]

Cambrian (CS), and I think Northeast (NE), was used as a call-sign until late October 1976 when they were replaced by 'Albion'.

The 'Albion' call-sign in turn was replaced late-March 1978 by 'Speedbird'

The 'B-line' call-sign was replaced in late-October 1978, along with 'Shuttle' when all British Airways flights were standardised by the 'Speedbird' call-sign.

The 'Shuttle' was used from inception in 1975 until late-October 1978 and replaced with 'Speedbird', using the last three numbers of the flight number...i.e Shuttle 713 (BE4713 EDI-LHR). From late-October 1978, this would have become BA4713.

In February 1981 it was replaced by the dreaded alpha-numerics and 'Shuttle' re-introduced. For example the first Heathrow-Manchester of the day was Shuttle M2A and the return was something like Shuttle R3S. The 'M' & 'R' were later dropped.

[WHBM]

The 'B-line' call-sign was replaced in late-October 1978, along with 'Shuttle' when all British Airways flights were standardised by the 'Speedbird' call-sign.
This might have been when the flight numbers were standardised as well on 1-299 for long haul and 300-up for short haul, as mentioned above. I seem to recall on the Los Angeles flight it was BA598/599 in early 1978, and BA 282/283 a few months later.

[MARK9263]

WHBM, yes you are correct.

Although the short and long-haul changeover actually took place in late-March 1978.
BA599/8 became BA283/2
BA501/0 (JFK) became BA175/4
BA561/0 (BOS) became BA271/0 ...etc etc

[DaveReidUK]

Although the short and long-haul changeover actually took place in late-March 1978That would make sense - so the flight numbers were rationalised at the end of the Winter 1977 IATA season, and the BE prefix (and Bealine callsign) finally disappeared at the end of S78.

It would have been very difficult to do either of those mid-season, I have a vague memory that's roughly when the res systems moved from BABS and BEACON to RTA, but I may be wrong about that.

[India Four Two]

I presume the call sign was pronounced BEELINE, but if my assumption is correct, I was wondering if it was spelled that way on flight plans. BEALINE might be very confusing for non-English speakers.

[MARK9263]

Personally speaking, I was never sure myself.

Was it B-LINE, BEELINE, BEALINE....???

[26er]

I think it was BEALINE. Wasn't there a BEALINE HOUSE in Ruislip? Known to those who didn't work there as "Teatime House".

[DaveReidUK]

Was it B-LINE, BEELINE, BEALINE....??? Bealine - which was also the company's telegraphic address, and the name of its HQ at Northolt before it moved to Heathrow.

http://www.bealine.de/media/95a618c7116cb147ffff8149fffffff0.jpg