Guthrie had initially been offered a role with British Overseas Airways Corporation immediately after the war, but the death of his father on 28 September 1945 made this difficult and he would instead manage the Guthrie family's business interests, which included the shareholding in North Central Wagon Company. He was appointed to the board of North Central in August 1946, at their
annual general meeting. He initially asked
Edward Heath in 1946 to join North Central as the deputy chairman, with a view to him taking over as chairman, but Heath, who was interested in running for Parliament, thought moving from London to Rotherham, where North Central was based, would be damaging to his political ambitions and turned down the offer. Guthrie, in addition to his North Central role, served as managing director of the merchant bank
Brown, Shipley & Co., and he would again offer Edward Heath a role, in 1949, as a trainee banker. He also served on the board of
Radio Rentals until 1964, and served on the board of
Prudential Assurance Company from May 1963 to January 1964. He was appointed to fill the vacant seat on the Prudential board created by the death of
Donald Fergusson in March 1963, and it was widely expected he would become Prudential's chairman.
Aviation industry His knowledge of aviation and finance made him an ideal candidate for board positions with the state-owned British airlines; firstly he was appointed to the board of British European Airways in April 1959 then in 1963, he was appointed to the board of British Overseas Airways Corporation, where he took over from
Matthew Slattery as chairman and
Basil Smallpeice as managing director, taking the additional title of chief executive. He took up his position on 1 January 1964, relinquishing all but his British European Airways board appointment when taking up the BOAC role; the Government wished for closer co-operation between BOAC and BEA, and it was agreed that Guthrie would remain on the BEA board to facilitate this. Guthrie joined the Air Registration Board (predecessor of the
Civil Aviation Authority) in September 1964, serving as an airline representative. He was appointed at the same time as his predecessor at BOAC, Matthew Slattery and aircraft engine designer
Stanley Hooker. BOAC's debt stood at approximately £80 million by 1964, all financed by the government. This indebtedness was further exacerbated by the airline being ordered by the government to purchase British-built aircraft it had little or no requirement for, and as a result, a capital borrowing facility of £180 million was made available in 1961–1962 to finance the purchase of 35
Vickers VC10 jet aircraft. Guthrie was employed specifically to tackle the financial issues at the airline and restore its long-term profitability. His initial proposals involved complementary decisions to reduce the number of destinations and routes served, and scaling back the size of the fleet, which was planned to reach 100 aircraft by 1970. Guthrie initially planned for a fleet of 39 aircraft by 1967, consisting of the 12 Vickers Standard VC10s which had been delivered or which were under construction, and 27
Boeing 707s. This would be achieved by cancelling the order for 30 Vickers Super VC10 aircraft and purchasing 6 additional Boeing 707 jets instead, with more ordered if needed.
Julian Amery,
Minister of Aviation agreed to the majority of Guthrie's plan, the only major exception being the outright cancellation of the Vickers VC10, which wasn't authorised. The routes to South America were divested to
British United Airways, the debt owed to government was written off and refinancing of the airline completed with an investment of £30m from the government. BOAC were permitted to purchase two Boeing 707 freighters during 1965 and after taking full ownership of the BOAC-Cunard joint venture, the two Boeing 707 passenger jets which
Cunard Line had contributed to the joint venture (through their
Cunard Eagle Airways subsidiary) passed to BOAC. Passenger growth and load factors quickly increased under Guthrie's tenure, and he invested in larger aircraft with more passenger capacity than either the Vickers Super VC10 or the Boeing 707 could provide.
Boeing and
Pan American World Airways had worked together to develop the
Boeing 747 and it quickly became apparent that to compete with Pan American on the north Atlantic routes, BOAC would need to operate either the Boeing 747 or a broadly comparable jet. Guthrie successfully resisted pressure to purchase a proposed double-deck variant of the Vickers Super VC10, and was given permission to place an order for six Boeing 747-100 aircraft in August 1966. Guthrie's tenure at BOAC was marred by a two fatal incidents; the first,
BOAC Flight 911, occurred in March 1966 when a Boeing 707 experienced
clear-air turbulence whilst overflying
Mount Fuji in Japan. The crash resulted in the deaths of all 124 passengers and crew, the most deadly accident involving a British airline to date. Guthrie travelled to Japan to be involved in the investigation. The second fatal accident,
BOAC Flight 712, also involved a Boeing 707. The aircraft suffered an un-contained engine failure during takeoff; returning to Heathrow, the engine separated from the wing, causing the wing to catch fire. The aircraft cabin was destroyed by fire, and five people were killed. Guthrie would attempt to deal with industrial relations issues and strike action which affected BOAC, like many state-owned companies in the 1960s and 1970s. He was largely successful and left the company with only a pay dispute with pilots unresolved, an issue that would continue on for several more years, delaying the Boeing 747's introduction by a year to 1971. He was responsible for cutting the executive headcount by a quarter, and more than 3,000 staff made redundant, with some being replaced by the new computer systems he introduced to streamline the business. Guthrie, when interviewed in
The Times days before his formal resignation, explained that the airline had public dividend capital of £50 million, the government loan capital of £30 million and £61 million in cash reserves, and with an expected profit of £12 million to £15 million in 1968–1969, BOAC's finances would be almost exactly where he had intended them to be when he took up his role in 1964; he wanted £80 million in capital and £80 million in reserves at the end of the five-year period running from 1964 to 1968. He also indicated the problems inherent with the separate BOAC and BEA structures during this interview, something that would be resolved when BOAC and BEA merged to form
British Airways in March 1974. ==Other interests==