Watch: British Airways plane in vintage 1960s livery lands at Leeds Bradford Airport

The British Airways plane in 1960s British European Airways livery

An Airbus A319 painted in the 1960s colour scheme of the now-defunct British European Airways flew the London Heathrow to Leeds Bradford service today, landing just after 5pm.

The plane, registered G-EUPJ, was originally meant to operate the flight from London two Fridays ago on March 15, but scheduling issues meant another aircraft was used instead, leaving planespotters disappointed.

British Airways is celebrating its 50th birthday by repainting aircraft in the colours of some of the predecessor airlines which were eventually absorbed into the present-day national carrier.

The plane operated a scheduled service from London Heathrow

A Boeing 747 has been given the 1960s British Overseas Airways Corporation colour scheme and will fly long-haul routes for British Airways, while the smaller Airbus A319 has been painted in the livery of the British European Airways line from the same decade.

It has already visited other British airports including Manchester and Edinburgh and has been operating short-haul European and domestic routes. G-EUPJ will be retired next year.

The BEA livery was used between 1959 and 1968. However, the current aircraft has a grey upper wing, rather than the traditional red, to meet current wing paint reflectivity requirements. A jumbo jet in BA's Landor livery - named after designers Landor Associates - will follow, then a final design, which will be revealed later this month.

British Airways originated with the launch of Aircraft Transport and Travel, who ran the world's first daily international scheduled flights between London and Paris as British European Airways on 25 August 1919. It merged in 1924 with three other airlines to form Imperial Airways. Other air transport companies merged in 1935 to form British Airways, which became Imperial Airways' main UK competitor on European routes. Imperial Airways and British Airways were nationalised in 1939 to form BOAC, while BEA operated from 1946. The Landor. They were merged to form BA in 1974, and privatised in 1987.

Photographer Andrew Easby was on hand to capture the plane's arrival.