Editing Airline (section)

====Rationalization====
[[File:National Audit Office - Victoria - London - 020504.jpg|upright=0.7|thumb|The [[Imperial Airways]] Empire Terminal, [[Victoria, London]]. Trains ran from here to [[flying boats]] in [[Southampton]], and to [[Croydon Airport]].]]
By the early 1920s, small airlines were struggling to compete, and there was a movement towards increased rationalization and consolidation. In 1924, [[Imperial Airways]] was formed from the merger of [[Instone Air Line|Instone Air Line Company]], [[British Marine Air Navigation Co Ltd|British Marine Air Navigation]], [[Daimler Airway]] and [[Handley Page Transport]], to allow British airlines to compete with stiff competition from French and German airlines that were enjoying heavy government subsidies. The airline was a pioneer in surveying and opening up air routes across the world to serve far-flung parts of the [[British Empire]] and to enhance trade and integration.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1923/1923%20-%200760.html |title = Imperial Air Transport Company: Appointment of Government Directors|work = Flight|date = 20 December 1923|page = 760}}</ref>

The first new airliner ordered by Imperial Airways, was the [[Handley Page W8f]] ''City of Washington'', delivered on 3 November 1924.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/coming%20of%20age/imperial%20airways.htm |title=Imperial Airways |access-date=1 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923201958/http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/coming%20of%20age/imperial%20airways.htm |archive-date=23 September 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In the first year of operation the company carried 11,395 passengers and 212,380 letters. In April 1925, the film ''[[The Lost World (1925 film)|The Lost World]]'' became the first film to be screened for passengers on a scheduled airliner flight when it was shown on the London-Paris route.

Two French airlines also merged to form [[Air Union]] on 1 January 1923. This later merged with four other French airlines to become [[Air France]], the country's flagship carrier to this day, on 17 May 1933.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Britannica Concise Encyclopedia|publisher=Britannica Digital Learning|year=2017|pages=Air France|via=Credo Reference}}</ref>

Germany's [[Deutsche Lufthansa]] was created in 1926 by merger of two airlines, one of them [[Junkers Luftverkehr]]. Lufthansa, due to the [[Hugo Junkers|Junkers]] heritage and unlike most other airlines at the time, became a major investor in airlines outside of Europe, providing capital to [[Varig]] and Avianca. German airliners built by [[Junkers (Aircraft)|Junkers]], [[Dornier GmbH|Dornier]], and [[Fokker]] were among the most advanced in the world at the time.{{Citation needed|date=January 2020}}