Queen Elizabeth with British Airways staff dressed in heritage uniforms, marking the airline's centenary year. (Pool/Reuters/Tolga Akmen)

British Airways Marks Its 100th Anniversary with The Queen

The British national carrier which made its first international flight in 1919 will soon celebrate the 100^th anniversary on August 25. To mark this amazing journey, Queen Elizabeth visited British Airways headquarters near Heathrow in Harmondsworth, Middlesex and joined the excitement on Thursday (5/23).

The monarch was escorted by BA chief executive, Alex Cruz. She was friendly greeted by the airline staff and was invited to tour around the BA's heritage museum of Speedbird Center. There she reminisced about some of her most memorable overseas trips with BA, especially her first flight on the Concord in 1977.

The Queen already had trips to 116 countries during 266 official visits, making her becomes the most traveled monarch in British history. But even so, she does not have a passport. The fascinating thing was when she was shown a handwritten ticket of her BA trip to Jamaica shortly after her coronation in 1953. This was her first trip as a queen to Montego Bay with Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburg.  

Having traveled a lot during her lifetime, The Queen admitted that she is very pleased but many of the trips 'muddled' in her memory, she said as she mischievously smiled.  

In addition, The Queen was also welcomed by Jim Davies, the company staff who worked for 36 years before retiring. He showed her one of their older planes called The Elizabethan. She was also shown a picture of her christening an Avro Tudor plane using cider instead of champagne, which happened during the ongoing war in 1947. Mr. Davies explained to The Queen that the using of champagne at that time would have looked too profligate.

During the visit, The Queen spoke about her recent BA travel of 17 hours non-stop flight from Perth to London in 2011. Afterward, she was introduced to the BA staff members dressed in heritage uniforms from the past decade.

Mr. Alex described that the Queen took a huge amount of interest throughout the visit. She was also very warmed by the patriotism and history there.