When BEA ceased to exist on 1 April 1974, merging with BOAC to form British Airways (BA), had a fleet of 70 Tridents.
On 11 March 1964, a BEA Trident 1C operated the Trident's first commercial service from Heathrow to Copenhagen. Initially, BEA operated its Tridents in a 79-seat, two-class configuration, comprising 15 first class and 64 tourist class seats.
The 2E series, delivered from spring 1968, was an aerodynamically improved version of the original 1C series incorporating the re-arranged interior, that resulted in a greater seating capacity, as well as a higher gross weight, increased fuel capacity by providing an additional fuel tank in the fin and more powerful Rolls-Royce Spey engines to fly non-stop from London to Beirut with 90 passengers.
On the end of 60s BEA chose a stretched version of the basic Trident, the Trident 3B, with fuselage stretch of 5 m, that made room for up to 180 passengers. Commercial operations began on 1 March 1971 on the airline's Heathrow–Orly route.
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