Very little, if any, early history of the BA football team can be found except an entry in the initial minutes of the then Speedbird Club where the BA Football team was one of 6 other BA sections that were formed as part of the Sporting and Social Club for BOAC. So it seems that the earliest date we can verify is April 1947 for the BOAC team - no such evidence can be found for it’s counter part BEA .
 
What we do know is that the BOAC & BEA teams have played in various local leagues since the inauguration in 1947. As part of a UK Aviation review UK airlines were integrated into one airline; British Airways the United Kingdom's national airline, was formed in 1974 with the merger of the two largest UK airlines, British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and British European Airways (BEA), and also included two smaller regional airlines, Cambrian Airways and Northeast Airlines.
The merger was the completion of a consolidation process started in 1971 with the establishment of the British Airways Board, a body created by the British government to control the operations and finances of BOAC and BEA, which initially continued to exist as separate entities.
When BEA & BOAC merged in 1974 to become British Airways it took another 8 years before the teams amalgamated to become one all-encompassing British Airways Football Section this was driven by the sale of the the ‘old’ Silver Wing Club at Northolt to Ameretto’s Country  Club and all sporting activities from Northolt moved to the Concorde Centre (formerly Speedbird Club) at Heston.  

The amalgamation of the two clubs created a huge football section with over 200
members. At that time there were approx 15 adult teams comprising of BA Staff from office workers to pilots from baggage handling to IT programmers.          
 
The teams played in local leagues such as the Hanwell and District Mid Week  League (folded many years ago) this mid week league was followed by the Airport League which has now also folded. The Sat teams played in the West Middlesex League ( that has now also folded) the teams moved to the London Commercial League. This League had ten divisions at one time with at least 10 teams in each division and all the teams had to have their own sports grounds! All this has gone now with companies selling off the land the private developers or deciding that they couldn’t afford to run sporting activities any longer, no wonder we are all getting fatter!

The Football teams at British Airways have had a very long, successful and proud history in Middlesex Junior football winning many league and county honours along the way. The BA Sat 1st team are probably one of the most successful teams: in Middlesex Junior football we have won the London Commercial League the Div 1 title and Senior League Cup on many, many occasions. The team have also been successful in the Middlesex County Intermediate Cup winning this cup 8 times and in 2005/06/07 this trophy was won 3 years running - a feat not equalled (so far!)-we have also had success in the Middlesex County Premier Cup winning the trophy in 1997 against a very strong Hayes Reserves XI.

Since moving to the Middlesex County League in 2007 we have won the Premier Div twice and finishing top of the Premier League we have now gained promotion to the Combined Counties League - a big step up for our Club, we hope to justify our promotion with a good showing in a first year. We will also be playing at Bedfont and Feltham in our new ground share arrangement with Brian Barry and his team.

Ray Pipe
Chairman
British Airways FC