The story
In March 2002 British Airways Citiexpress ltd. was etabilished merging Brymon Aviation (Brymon Airways), a British Airways subsidiary from 1993, with BRAL-British Regional Airlines and with CityFlyer Express. Operations were started on 31 March. The new regional airline was almost immediately known as BA Connect, which became the registered corporate name on 1 February 2006.
The regional operations of British Airways at Birmingham and Manchester, were integrated into the new airline later in 2002. The air carrier was recognised for pioneering and attaining CAA approval for the print-at-home boarding pass, one of the first self-service tools of the digital era.
On 1 February 2006 the airline was renamed BA Connect Ltd. operating as BA Connect and operations moved to a low-cost carrier model, with food sold via a 'buy on board' programme (except for flights to London City Airport). However, allocated seating and a baggage valet service were still available, while lounge access, tier points and BA Miles remained unaffected for those in the Executive Club. Operationally the new service came into effect on 26 March 2006.
BA Connect handled most of British Airways' domestic and European services that do not serve London’s Heathrow or Gatwick airports. It had hubs in Birmingham, Bristol, London–City, Manchester and Southampton. From these locations the carrier operated services to several northwest European destinations and also to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. A few services also operated from Gatwick. In total, BA Connect flew from 17 airports in the UK and Ireland on 63 routes to major or central regional airports.
On 3 November 2006, British Airways chief executive said that he had reached an agreement for Flybe to purchase BA Connect. BA would ensure that Flybe has sufficient funding in order to achieve its growth targets and the transition out of current BA Connect fleet. In return BA would acquire a 15% stake in the new business. The acquisition (which did not include BA Connect routes to London City or from Manchester to New York) would significantly increase the Flybe route network in both the UK and continental Europe, making Flybe the largest regional airline in Europe. Retention of the London City routes would result in BA retaining the RJ100 aircraft for these domestic and European services. BA had to pay Flybe a sum of money to take on the company due to Flybe actually taking on a company that would cost them money rather than make profits for the foreseeable future.
Much concern was expressed at the shedding of routes across Scotland, but Flybe stated that BA Connect routes would be kept and expanded. On 6 March 2007 Flybe stated that they would not be operating any former BA Connect services from Bristol. Consequently, the last flights on any of BA Connect's routes from Bristol was on 24 March 2007.
From Wikipedia’s article on BA Connect, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3