British Overseas Airways Corporation
On 24 November 1939, BOAC was created by Act of Parliament to become the British state airline, formed from the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. The companies had been operating together since war was declared on 3 September 1939, when their operations were evacuated from the London area to Bristol. On 1 April 1940, BOAC started operations as a single company. Following the Fall of France (22 June 1940), BOAC aircraft kept wartime Britain connected with its colonies and the allied world, often under enemy fire, and initially with desperate shortages of long-range aircraft. During the war, the airline was sometimes loosely referred to as 'British Airways', and aircraft and equipment were marked with combinations of that title and/or the Speedbird symbol and/or the Union Flag.
Giles Guthrie
BOAC was suffering from significant financial problems when Guthrie took over, and the airline had run at a loss from 1958 through to 1963, returning to profitability in 1963–1964. BOAC's debt stood at approximately £80 million by 1964, all financed by the government. This indebtedness was further exacerbated by the airline being ordered by the government to purchase British-built aircraft it had little or no requirement for, and as a result, a capital borrowing facility of £180 million was made available in 1961–1962 to finance the purchase of 35 Vickers VC10 jet aircraft. The plans to acquire the Vickers VC10, which would eventually call for a fleet of 45 to be purchased by 1967, resulted in the resignations of Matthew Slattery, Guthrie's predecessor as chairman, and his managing director, Basil Smallpeice. They believed BOAC had no requirement for all the aircraft ordered, that the Vickers VC10 would be too expensive to operate, and that the government's 'Buy British' policy would prevent the airline from returning to profitability.