followed by daily two-class Britannia services from Heathrow to Edinburgh and Belfast the next day. Two Britannia aircraft were leased from BOAC to provide additional capacity. This was the first time an independent airline was allowed to compete with the corporations on the main UK domestic trunk routes and only the fourth time there was direct competition between private and state-owned airlines on domestic trunk routes anywhere. It was also the first time a scheduled airline had offered a separate first class cabin on a UK domestic route. As British Eagle was restricted to a single daily round-trip on each route, it sought to differentiate itself from BEA. While BEA served these routes with 132-seat Vickers Vanguards in an all-tourist configuration with minimal onboard catering, British Eagle provided full catering on all flights. This included top-quality wines as well as the use of Wedgwood china and fine-quality glassware in first class. British Eagle differentiated itself by introducing assigned seating and "trickle loading". The former was a first for a UK scheduled domestic carrier while the airline claimed to have started the latter in the UK as well. Although British Eagle provided a standby aircraft to maintain the integrity of its schedules, flights were timed to provide eight-hours' work per day for one aircraft to maximise utilisation. BEA, whose frequencies were not restricted, responded to the challenge on its three most important domestic routes by scheduling additional flights that departed and arrived at the same time or within 10 minutes of its rival's scheduled departure and arrival times. This had the effect of "sandwiching" British Eagle's flights. BEA's response also included the introduction of trickle loading and subsequent introduction of full onboard catering as well as a separate first class cabin. Acquisition of Starways On 31 December 1963, British Eagle took over Liverpool-based Starways. This gave it access to a fast-growing network of regional scheduled routes from Liverpool – including the busy London route – and to several IT contracts from locally based tour operators. British Eagle's ability to control the important Liverpool—London route strengthened its position in the UK's internal air travel market generally and on the main domestic trunk routes from Heathrow in particular. The Starways fleet – two Vickers Viscounts, three Douglas DC-4s and three DC-3s – was not included in the takeover and subsequently disposed of. Instead, to provide sufficient capacity to operate the combined airline's flying