ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the meandering course of British policy, and the relationship between the British flag-carrier and the state. It focuses on three aspects of that relationship: changing government policy on the subsidisation and ownership structure of the national airline; the link between that policy and the government’s concern for the British aircraft industry; and the flag-carrier’s operational performance. The multiplicity of instruments favoured by Stafford Cripps in 1946 was to be replaced with a single flag-carrier, and a genuine, if limited, form of competition in the second force. The importance of the Cadman Report lies in its greater appreciation of the dynamics of international air transport and of Sir Herbert Hambling’s over-optimism regarding the extent of financial support that the industry required. An important part of her programme was the privatisation of nationalised industries and British Airways was among the targets.
