1930
Imperial Airways introduced combined air and rail freight service. Consignments were accepted at UK railway stations for forwarding by Imperial Airways’ services.

16 June: Imperial Airways inaugurated a London-Birmingham-Manchester-Liverpool thrice-weekly service with Argosy aircraft. This service was to provide Continental connections at Croydon and was withdrawn on 20 September.

During the late summer, Imperial Airways operated, for six weeks, an experimental Alexandria-Haifa-Famagusta service at the request of the Air Ministry and the Government of Cyprus. Short Calcutta flying boats were used.

1931
28 February: G-ABFA Scipio, first of three Short S17 Kent flying boats for Imperial Airways, made its first flight from the Medway at Rochester. It left the UK on 27 April for its Mediterranean station.

28 February: Imperial Airways introduced a weekly England-Central Africa service terminating at Mwanza on Lake Victoria, taking ten days to cover the 5,124 mile route.

29 April: TRH Prince of Wales and Prince George flew by Imperial Airways’ Argosy G-EBLF City of Glasgow (Captain Gordon Olley) from France to Smith’s Lawn, Windsor Great Park, on their return home from a South American tour.

11 June: The Handley Page HP42 four-engined bi-plane, a notable aircraft, was introduced by Imperial Airways on the Croydon-Paris route. With two passenger cabins this safe, slow but stately aeroplane brought new standards of safety and comfort to air travel.

25 August: The London Gazette published an Order in Council establishing a Civil Air Ensign.

9 December: Imperial Airways’ service that day for Central Africa extended experimentally to Cape Town for the carriage of Christmas mail. The aircraft used on the last sector, DH66 G-AARY City of Karachi arrived in Cape Town on 21 December.

1932
Routes to East Africa via Cairo were also being developed and on 20 January a mail-only route to Cape Town was opened; on 27 April the route was opened to passengers – the flights left Croydon on Wednesdays and landed at Cape Town on Sundays ten days later!

16 April: Imperial Airways’ England-India services leaving London from that date called at Limassol, Cyprus.

30 May: London-Edinburgh race by Imperial Airways’ Handley Page 45 G-AAXC Heracles (Captain O P Jones) and London and North Eastern Railways’ Flying Scotsman. During the race radio communication was used between the aircraft and the train.

26 September: Imperial Airways introduced the Armstrong Whitworth AW15 Atalanta, four engined aircraft for a short period on London-Brussels and, subsequently on Paris-Basle-Zurich before it went into service on Empire routes.

1933
5 January-14 February: Imperial Airways’ Armstrong Whitworth XV G-ABTI Artemis flew from Croydon to Cape Town; this was the first flight to South Africa by this type of aircraft. Shortly afterwards, Atalantas replaced DH66s on the Kisumu-Cape Town sector of the London-Cape Town route.

18 February: Imperial Airways completed its first 10,000,000 miles of flying.

29 May: England-Australia survey flight begun by Imperial Airways Armstrong Whitworth XV Atalanta G-ABTL Astraea; Major H G Brackley, Imperial Airways’ Air Superintendent, was in charge of the flight. Astraea flew Croydon-Paris-Lyons-Rome-Brindidsi-Athens-Alexandria-Cairo where in followed the normal route to Karachi thence Jodhpur-Delhi-Calcutta-Akyab-Rangoon-Bangkok-Prachuab-Alor Star-Singapore-Palembang-Batavia-Sourabaya-Bima-Koepang-Bathurst Island-Darwin-Newcastle Waters-Camooweal-Cloncurry-Longreach-Roma-Toowoomba reaching Eagle Farm, Brisbane on 23 June.

Sydney was visited on 26 June, Canberra on 28 June and Melbourne on 29 June.

1 July: UK-India route extended from Karachi to Calcutta in conjunction with Indian Trans-Continental Airways; the trans-India route was Karachi-Jodhpur-Delhi-Cawnpore-Allahabad-Calcutta. On 23 September the route was extended Calcutta-Akyab-Rangoon. On 9 December the route was extended Rangoon-Singapore.

1934
Railway Air Services Ltd was registered on 21 March. Formed by the four mainline railways, London Midland & Scottish, London & North Eastern, Great Western and Southern and Imperial Airways, the company was “to provide and operate air services in the British Isles and elsewhere and to form connecting links with the services of Imperial Airways.” Each railway company and Imperial Airways provided a director; the Chairman was Sir Harold Hartley (LMSR). RAS’ first flight on 7 May was Plymouth-Haldon-Cardiff-Birmingham operated by Dragon G-ACPX.

16 May: Imperial Airways commissioned the first of two Short L17 Scylla four engined bi-planes for use on European. This was G-ACJJ Scylla. Its first service flight was on the London-Paris route with mail and passengers for the Africa service (Captain A B H Youell).

26 May: First official Royal Air Mail pennant presented to Imperial Airways; it was handed to Sir Eric Geddes, Imperial Airways’ Chairman, by the Postmaster General, Sir Kingsley Wood. The pennant was flown that day by G-AAXE Hengist when departing from Croydon for Paris with the Indian mail.

On 17 November the Government introduced an unsurcharged airmail scheme to many parts of the Empire (“the Empire Air Mail Scheme”), creating a huge demand for cargo space on aircraft. Imperial Airways, therefore, took the bold step of ordering from the drawing board 31 large, modern, four-engined flying boats from Short Brothers, of Rochester, Kent – the famous C Class Empire Boats. These boats carried a large volume of mail; passengers were accommodated in luxurious cabins with a promenade area in which they could relax and gaze down at the passing scenery. By the mid-1930s all the mainline Empire routes were operated by these flying boats.

The UK-Australia mail service opened on 8 December, operated by Imperial Airways (Croydon-Karachi), Indian Trans-Continental (Karachi-Singapore) and Qantas (Singapore-Brisbane).

1935
11 March: Avro 652 G-ACRM Avalon was delivered to Imperial Airways. This and G-ACRN Avatar (later Ava) were the first low-wing monoplanes with retractable undercarriages to be delivered to a major airline.

1 April: Imperial Airways opened London-Brussels-Cologne-Halle/Leipzig-Prague-Vienna-Budapest service with DH86A Diana class aircraft.

13 April: Imperial Airways and Qantas Empire Airways opened the 12,754 mile London-Brisbane route for passengers; single fare £195. No through bookings on the first service because of heavy sector bookings, but there were two through passengers on the service which left London on 20 April. The route was opened for passengers from Brisbane to London on 17 April. The frequency of service was once-weekly and the journey time was 12½ days.

1936
On 1 January, British Airways Limited was formed from United Airways, Hillman’s Airways and Spartan Airlines. They started operations from Heston, Middlesex, moving on 17 May to Gatwick. The airline operated to Paris, Hamburg, Copenhagen and Malmo and also received a government subsidy to develop routes to North and East Europe. They mainly used American-built Lockheed monoplanes.

On 9 February the trans-Africa route was opened by Imperial Airways between Khartoum and Kano and, later, Lagos.

14 March: The Hong Kong route was opened via Rangoon and, later, Bangkok.

17 March: An Imperial Airways passenger was fined £10 at Croydon Police Court for smoking in Heracles on a Paris-London flight; this was the first case of its kind in Britain.

2 July: G-ADHL Canopus, first of imperial Airways’ fleet of Short S23 C Class Empire flying boats launched on the Medway at Rochester.

30 July: H.M. Government announced its plans for North Atlantic air services. It had decided, after discussions with the Canadian, Irish and Newfoundland governments, that a joint operating company would be responsible for operations and that this company would have three directors from each nominated Canadian, Irish and UK company. The British nominated company was Imperial Airways. Preference was given for a direct route from the UK via Ireland, Newfoundland and Canada but it was considered that initially winter services might have to operate via Bermuda. Experimental flights were to be made by Imperial Airways with the results of the experiments being placed at the disposal of the joint company when it was formed. In fact, no joint company was involved in North Atlantic operations.

15 October: Imperial Airways’ London-Kano service extended via Kaduna, Minna and Oshogbo to Lagos.

30 October: G-ADHL Canopus made the first scheduled flight from Alexandria to Brindisi by a C Class flying boat on Imperial Airways’ trans-Mediterranean route from Alexandria to Brindisi via Mirabella and Athens in 7hrs 20mins. Canopus (Captain F J Bailey) had left Rochester on delivery to the Mediterranean on 22 October. The first southbound C Class service operated on 2 November.

21 December: Imperial Airways C Class flying boat G-ADHM Caledonia carrying Christmas mail flew 1,700 miles non-stop from Alexandria to Marseilles on 11¼ hours. The following day Caledonia flew Marseilles-Southampton in 4¼ hours.

1937
7 February: British Airways Ltd transferred its operational base from Gatwick to Croydon Airport.

8 February: Imperial Airways began regular operation of Southampton-Alexandria services with C Class flying boats. The first service was by G-ADUW Castor. The aircraft had departed on 6 February but returned with oiled plugs; rough water prevented departure on 7 February.

5 March: Imperial Airways opened Hythe flying boat base, on Southampton Water, for operation of its Empire services; from that date only the airline’s European services operated from Croydon.

5 April: British Airways Ltd introduced Lockheed 10 Electras on the London-Paris route with a 90mins schedule.

5 April: Imperial Airways’ London-Budapest services rerouted to call at Frankfurt instead of Cologne and Leipzig; this was to provide connection with German transatlantic Zeppelin services at Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei to Rio de Janeiro and to New York (Lakehurst).

19 April: British Airways Limited introduced Lockheed 10 Electras on its reopened London-Stockholm service which then operated to a 7hrs 20mins schedule.

2 May: Imperial Airways’ HP45 G-AAXC Heracles made the airline’s 40,000th thousand Channel crossing.

In June, Sir George Beharrell became Chairman of Imperial Airways on the death of Sir Eric Geddes.

2 June: Imperial Airways’ first through flying boat service to South Africa left Southampton, G-ADHL Canopus. The route was Marseilles-Rome-Brindisi-Athens-Alexandria-Cairo-Wadi Halfa-Khartoum-Malakal-Butiaba-Port Bell-Kisumu-Mombasa-Dar es Salaam-Lindi-Mozambique-Beira-Lourenco Marques-Durban. The route had optional stops at Macon, Mirabella, Luxor, Kareima, Laropi, Quelimane and Inhambane. The first northbound service by G-ADVC Corsair left Durban on 6 June.

16 June: Imperial Airways and Pan Am opened joint Bermuda-New York services. Imperial Airways C Class flying boat G-ADUU Cavalier flew from Bermuda to New York and Pan Am’s Sikorsky S-42 NC16735 Bermuda flew New York-Bermuda.

Imperial Airways first New York-Bermuda was on 19 June.

29 June: Empire Air Mail programme inaugurated by the Secretary of State for Air, Viscount Swinton, and the Postmaster general, Rt Hon G C Tyron MP in a ceremony aboard MV Medina on Southampton Water. Imperial Airways flying boat G-ADVE Centurion left Southampton with 3,500lbs of unsurcharged mail.

5/6 July: First commercial survey flights across the North Atlantic, by Imperial Airways long-range C Class flying boat G-ADHM Caledonia which left Foynes at 1857GMT and alighted at Botwood at 1000GMT.

23 July: Imperial Airways HP45 G-AAXC Heracles completed one million miles flying in 10,200 hours having carried about 80,000 passengers.

9 August: British Airways Ltd began London-Berlin night mail service in co-operation with Lufthansa. This service, an extension of the London-Cologne-Hanover service, carried all British first class mail for Central and Eastern Europe and was operated with Junkers-Ju/3m aircraft.

6/7 October: Imperial Airways C Class flying boat G-ADHM Caledonia made the first survey flight from Southampton to the Azores.

10 November: Imperial Airways announced its order for three De Havilland DH91 Albatross airliners; these were G-AFDI Frobisher, G-AFDJ Falcon and G-AFDK Fortuna. Subsequently, two more were ordered.

1938
20 January: First flight refuelling test with imperial Airways C Class flying boat G-ADUV Cambria was refuelled from Armstrong Whitworth AW23 K3585; the test was under the direction of Sir Alan Cobham.

6 February: First separation test of the Short-Mayo Composite aircraft. The Short S20 aeroplane G-ADHJ Mercury separated from the Short S21 flying boat Maia over Rochester.

8 February: The Cadman Committee (formed on 17 November 1937) presented its report. Its recommendations included (a) steps should be taken to expand UK air services to Europe (b) Imperial Airways should first and foremost be concerned with the development of Empire air routes (c) British Airways Ltd should in general develop air services in Europe (d) certain changes in organisation of British Airways Ltd and in internal management of Imperial Airways (this led to the resignation of George Woods Humphrey as managing director of Imperial Airways) and (e) personal contact between employer and employee in air transport companies should be supplemented by collective representation.

23 February: The Empire Air Mail scheme was extended to Egypt, Palestine, India, Burma, Ceylon and Malaya. The first unsurcharged air mail left Southampton in Imperial Airways C Class flying boat G-ADVE Centurion and Qantas’ VH-ABB Coolangatta. Both aircraft flew to Karachi arriving on 27 February; VH-ABB continued to Singapore.

29 May: British Airways Ltd transferred all daytime operations from Croydon and Gatwick to Heston. Night mail services continued from Croydon.

26 June: Imperial Airways’ first through flying boat service to Australia left Southampton. C Class flying boats G-AEUB Camilla and G-AEUD Cordelia operated the Southampton-Singapore sector; G-ADVD Challenger operated the Singapore-Sydney sector.

1 July: Sir John Reith was appointed to the Board of Imperial Airways and succeeded Sir George Beharrell as Chairman.

20/21 July: First heavier-than-air commercial crossing of the North Atlantic. Imperial Airways’ Short S20 floatplane G-ADHJ Mercury (Captain D C T Bennett) separated from the Short S21 flying boat G-ADHK Maia near Foynes and then flew non-stop to Montreal, 2,930 miles in 20 hours 20 minutes. From Montreal the flight continued to Port Washington, New York. Mail and newspapers were carried. The return flight was 25-27 July via Botwood, the Azores and Lisbon with a flight time of 25 hours.

28 July: The Empire Air Mail programme was extended to Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, Fiji, Papua etc. The first mail left Southampton in Imperial Airways C Class flying boat G-AEUA Calypso. From the same date Qantas Empire Airways flying boats began operating the whole route from Sydney to Southampton but Qantas crews worked only between Sydney and Singapore.

From this time, there were eight services weekly from the UK to Egypt, three to Central Africa, two to South Africa, five to India and three to Australia.

18 September: British Airways Ltd made non-stop flights London-Stockholm-London with Lockheed 14 G-AFGN which had been delivered to Heston on 3 September. The outward flight took 4¼ hours, the inbound 6hrs 10mins.

Proclaiming “peace in our time,” Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain MP returned from Munich to Heston on 29 September by British Airways Limited Lockheed 14 G-AFGN after his final meeting with Hitler.

5 October: Imperial Airways took delivery at Croydon of the first of their Armstrong Whitworth AW 27 Ensign class aircraft, G-ADSR Ensign.

6-8 October: Imperial Airways’ Short S20 floatplane G-ADHJ Mercury set a world long-distance record for seaplanes by flying non-stop from Dundee to the Orange River, South Africa covering 6,045 miles in 42hrs 5mins. Mercury was assisted from the Tay at Dundee by Maia.

7 October: British Airways Ltd made survey flights London (Heston)-Lisbon (Cintra) with two Lockheed 14s, one direct and one via Bordeaux. Another nonstop flight was made on 25 October and then, on 27 October, a flight from Lisbon to Seville; these flights were in connection with the projected route to West Africa and South America.

24 October: Imperial Airways’ Armstrong Whitworth AW27 Ensign G-ADSR Ensign began operating ad hoc London-Paris services following a demonstration flight to Paris on 20 October.

From 1 November it became an offence to operate air services in the UK without a licence issued by the Air Transport Licensing Authority.

25 November: The De Havilland DH91 Albatross aircraft entered service with Imperial Airways; G-AFDI Frobisher flew from Croydon to Paris in 53mins.

On 11 November, the British government announced its intention to merge Imperial Airways and British Airways Limited to form a single ‘chosen instrument,’ British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). The necessary Bill received Royal Assent on 4 August 1939, just prior to the commencement of World War II.

18-19 December: Imperial Airways DH91s G-AFDI Frobisher and G-AFDJ Falcon flew from London to Alexandria with Christmas mail. During December Imperial Airways and Qantas Empire Airways flew 1,158,000 miles of which 282,000 were flown on special Christmas mail operations in addition to scheduled flights with Christmas mail. In the seven weeks up to Christmas 240 tons of mail was carried.

1939
10 January: Imperial Airways’ DH91 G-AFDJ Falcon set a record by flying from Croydon to Brussels in 48mins.

16 April: Joint Imperial Airways-British Airways Ltd London-Paris service began. Frobisher class aircraft were used and operated to a 70mins schedule. There were eight services each way on weekdays and five on Sundays.

16 April: Imperial Airways cut the UK-South Africa route time to 4½ days and UK-Hong Kong route time to 5½ days.

12 June: British Overseas Airways Corporation Ltd Bill providing for the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd introduced in the House of Commons by Sir Kingsley Wood.

17 June: The first Short S26 G Class flying boat G-AFCI Golden Hind launched on the Medway at Rochester; its first flight was 21 July. Three G Class flying boats were constructed for transatlantic operations.

3 July: Short S30 C Class flying boats began operation of Imperial Airways’ UK-India terminating services; this was intended as a stopgap until the AW Ensigns were ready. First Southampton-Karachi service was by G-AFCX Clyde.

5 August: The first regular (weekly) experimental return commercial (air mail) Southampton-Foynes-Botwood-Montreal-New York transatlantic flights began using two modified C Class flying boats Cabot and Caribou, refuelled in flight.

3 September: Following the formal declaration of war by the British Government on Germany, all civil flying ceased. The head offices of Imperial Airways, British Airways Ltd and the Civil Aviation Department of the Air Ministry were evacuated to Bristol. The airlines’ landplanes were moved from Croydon and Heston to Whitchurch and Imperial Airways’ flying boats from Hythe to Poole.

22 September: Imperial Airways reopened UK-Egypt landplane route at the request of Air Officer Commanding, Egypt. The route was Shoreham-Bordeaux-Marseille-Tunis-Malta-Sollum-Alexandra; first flight by DH91 G-AFDK Fortuna. The route was later extended to India and remained open until Italy entered the war in 1940.

30 September: Imperial Airways C Class flying boat G-AFCU Cabot arrived at Poole completing the 1939 North Atlantic programme; 16 flights had been made. On 23-24 September Cabot had set a North Atlantic record by flying from Foynes to Botwood in 13 hours.

24 November: British Overseas Airways Corporation established under the BOAC Act; the Chairman was Sir John Reith.