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British Airways Ltd was a private airline company operating in Europe in the 1930s. It was first formed as Allied British Airways in October, 1935 by the merger of Spartan Air Lines and United Airways (no relation to the US carrier United Airlines). It rapidly acquired Hillman's Airways , adopted its definitive name, and transferred its UK base to the new Gatwick Airport. Its corporate emblem was a winged lion.

Initially equipped with a mixture of aircraft including the de Havilland Express and the Junkers Ju 52, the competitive nature of European aviation forced it to look to importing modern aircraft from overseas to maintain its position. Acquiring the Dutch-built Fokker F8 and Fokker F12 planes, it rapidly established services to Paris, Lille, Cologne, Amsterdam, Hannover, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Malmö and Stockholm.

It later bought the new all-metal American Lockheed L-10 ElectraThe Lockheed L-10 Electra was Lockheed's first experiment in metal aircraft production, and was built to compete with the Ford Trimotor. It made its first flight in 1934. Amelia Earhart piloted an Electra on her final around-the-world flight in 1937. and extended its routes to HungaryThe Republic of Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. It is known locally as the Country of the Magyars or Magyarorszag''. Magyar Koztarsasag ( In Detail) ( Full s and PolandThe Republic of Poland a country in Central Europe, lies between Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and the Baltic Sea, Lithuania and Russia (in the form of the Kaliningrad Oblast exclave) t.

British Airways Ltd was not really a competitor to the better known Imperial AirwaysImperial Airways was an early British commercial air transport company, operating from 1924 to 1939. Created following the advice of the government Hambling Committee in 1923 — that the main existing aircraft companies should be merged to create a company which flew to far-flung parts of the British EmpireThe British Empire in the early decades of the 20th century, held sway over a population of 400 500 million people (roughly a quarter of the world's population), and covered nearly 30 million square kilometres, (roughly two-fifths of the world's land area, enjoyed state subsidy, and used British-built aircraft, often antiquated. Shortly after the outbreak of World War IIWorld War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the world's nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. The war was fough, Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd were merged into a single state-owned national carrier - British Overseas Airways CorporationThe British Overseas Airways Corporation BOAC was the exclusive British state airline from 1939 until 1946 and the long-haul British state airline from 1946. The company started life with a merger between Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. BOAC lat (BOAC).

The British Airways name was to re-appear 35 years later when BOAC was re-merged with its 1946Events January January 4 Theodore Schurch becomes the last person to be executed for offences committed under the Treachery Act of 1940 January 7 Allied recognize Austrian republic with 1937 borders the country is divided into four occupation zones Januar spin-off British European Airways.