British Airways has waved goodbye to its final two Heathrow-based Boeing 747 aircraft, which departed this morning.

One aircraft is painted in its heritage Negus livery and the other in its current Chatham Dockyard livery.

Thousands of British Airways flight crew, cabin crew and engineering teams have worked over several decades on and with the aircraft during their time at British Airways during a period when they represented the heart of the long-haul fleet.

To commemorate G-CIVB and G-CIVY’s final take-off from the airport, the airline arranged a special send off with a unique and rarely seen synchronised dual take off on parallel runways, which was followed by fly past along the southerly runway by one of the aircraft (G-CIVY in current BA livery) as it bids its home a final farewell.

Alex Cruz, British Airways chief executive, said “This will be a difficult day for everybody at British Airways as the aircraft leaves our home at Heathrow for the very last time.”

Take a look a series of images from the swansong above.