British Asia Airways

British Asia Airways was a subsidiary of British Airways founded due to the legal status of Taiwan and territory disputes with China in order to allow British Airways to continue flying to Taiwan from the United Kingdom.

History

Due to political sensitivities, national airlines operating flights to China were not permitted to fly to Taiwan. Similar arrangements were made by other airlines, such as Japan Airlines, KLM, Qantas, Swissair and Air France. Lufthansa provided service to Taipei under the name of its then subsidiary, Condor.
British Asia Airways commenced operations in March 1993 with Boeing 747-400s repainted with the Union Flag tail fin replaced by the Chinese characters 英亞. The airline flew between Taipei and Hong Kong using the code BR, which BA had inherited from British Caledonian, while the flight from London used BA.
The airline ceased operations after British Airways ceased flights to Taipei in December 2001.