BR BAW Destinations 3 Founded March 1993 | BAW SPEEDBIRD Headquarters Taipei Ceased operations December 2001 | |
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rare hong kong kai tak british asia airways b744 takeoff roll
British Asia Airways (IATA: BR, ICAO: BAW, Call sign: Speedbird) was a subsidiary of British Airways formed in March 1993, based in Taiwan, to operate between London and Taipei via Hong Kong.
This was due to political sensitivities, as national airlines operating flights to the People's Republic of China were not permitted to fly to Taiwan. Similar arrangements were made by other airlines, such as Japan Airlines and Qantas.
It used the Boeing 747-436. repainted in a special livery, with the Union Flag tailfin being replaced by the Chinese characters 英亞 (Hanyu Pinyin: Yīng Yà; literally "British Asia").
It flew between Taipei and Hong Kong using the code BR, which BA had inherited from British Caledonian, while the flight from London used BA.
It ceased operations after BA suspended flights to Taipei in December 2001.