BAA's ownership of London's airports can be traced back to the mid-1960s when a collection of former aerodromes, which had been at their busiest during the Second World War, were placed under the control of the government-run British Airports Authority.

The authority's sole purpose was to operate Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, as well as Glasgow's Prestwick at a time when air travel was taking off and the Ministry of Defence could no longer handle the workload of an expanding commercial aviation sector.

Heathrow

Previously known as the Great Western Aerodrome, Heathrow was privately owned in the 1930s and was used for aircraft assembly and testing. Before the war, commercial traffic used Croydon Airport which was London's main airport at the time.

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Heathrow was developed as a Royal Air Force transfer base in 1943 but was never used by bombers and fighters in service. The airport opened for civilian use in May 1946 and by 1947 Heathrow had three runways, with three more under construction, in a six-point star pattern to allow for all wind conditions.

In 1953, the first slab of the first modern runway was poured and the first permanent terminal, the Europa Building (Terminal 2) opened in 1955.

Gatwick

Located at Hunts Green farm, the Surrey Aero Club flew from Gatwick from 1930 using the farmhouse as its first club house. The Redwing Aircraft Company bought the aerodrome in 1932 and operated a flying school. The aerodrome was also used for pilots flying in to watch the races.

In 1934, the Air Ministry approved commercial flights from Gatwick and, by 1936, scheduled flights were operating to several destinations on the Continent.

Gatwick was requisitioned by the RAF in September 1939 and used mainly for aircraft maintenance.

After the war a number of charter companies using war-surplus aircraft started to use the airport. In 1952, it was announced that Gatwick was to be developed as London's second airport and renovated at a cost of £7.8 million.

Stansted

Opened in 1943 when the 30th Air Depot Group took up residence, the American Army Air Force 344th Bombardment Group moved into Stansted in 1944 to launch bombing raids on targets in German-occupied Europe.

Between March 1946 and August 1947, Stansted was used for housing German prisoners of war.

The airport, which had had once been favoured to become London's alternative airport to Heathrow, was increasingly used in the 1960s by holiday charter operators wishing to escape the higher costs at the major hubs.

Scotland and Southampton

By 1965, the day-to-day orchestration of commercial air traffic and passengers in and out of the capital was becoming too difficult for central Government and BAA was created by the Labour Government under the Airports Authority Bill.

Between 1971 and 1975, BAA acquired Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow airports.

In 1986, as part of Margaret Thatcher's privatisation of government-owned assets, BAA plc was created out of the Airports Act as a vehicle by which stock market funds could be raised to fund the expansion of airports and reap the profits of their ever-growing business.

On the day it floated, BAA's market capitalisation was £1.2 billion, compared with more than £10 billion when it was delisted two years ago.

Having acquired Southampton Airport in 1990 and sold Prestwick in 1992, BAA began to look overseas to expand its business, beginning with Indianapolis Airport in the US, before investing in some of Australia's airports and later Budapest, which BAA sold last year.

In June 2006, BAA was bought by a consortium led by Ferrovial, the Spanish construction company, and in August that year was delisted from the London Stock Exchange.

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