British United Airways

British United Airways (BUA) was the result of a merger between Airwork Services and Hunting-Clan Air Transport in July 1960. British and Commonwealth Shipping (B&C;) became the newly constituted airline's main shareholder. From 1960 until 1968, BUA's corporate headquarters was located at Portland House in the City of Westminster, London. (Following a major reorganisation of the BUA group of companies in 1968, the airline's headquarters moved to ... more

British United Airways (BUA) was the result of a merger between Airwork Services and Hunting-Clan Air Transport in July 1960. British and Commonwealth Shipping (B&C;) became the newly constituted airline's main shareholder. From 1960 until 1968, BUA's corporate headquarters was located at Portland House in the City of Westminster, London. (Following a major reorganisation of the BUA group of companies in 1968, the airline's headquarters moved to Gatwick.) During the 1960s it grew to become the largest wholly private, independent airline based in the United Kingdom. By the end of the decade it had also become the UK's leading independent scheduled airline with a 71,000 km (43,217 miles) network spanning three continents - Europe, Africa and South America. In November 1970 B&C; sold BUA to the Scottish charter airline Caledonian Airways for £12m. At that stage it operated an all-jet fleet numbering 20 aircraft and employed a staff of 3,000. Airwork was formed in 1928. During the 1930s... less