BOAC operated the first scheduled passenger service using a jet airliner, flying the de Havilland Comet in 1952. BOAC was the British Overseas Airways Corporation, the predecessor of modern British Airways.
The inaugural jet service left London Airport, now London Heathrow, for Johannesburg on 2 May 1952. The aircraft was a Comet 1, and the route included stops because early jet technology did not yet provide the range of later wide-body aircraft.
The Comet was a major technical step: its four engines were buried in the wings, and its pressurized cabin allowed it to cruise above much of the weather encountered by piston-powered airliners. Passengers experienced a smoother and faster journey than on many contemporary propeller aircraft.
Several Comet aircraft later suffered catastrophic structural failures caused by metal fatigue around square window corners. The design was extensively revised, and lessons from the accidents influenced pressurized-aircraft engineering for decades. The first service itself remains BOAC's landmark achievement.