BRITISH Airways has issued an apology after backing the English rugby team over Wales ahead of this afternoon’s match.

The airline sent a “good luck” message to the English team, declaring support for them “against Wales today”.

The post sparked a Twitter storm with social media users telling the firm to change its name to “English Airways”.

The tweet was later deleted after receiving hundreds of responses.

Senior politicians in Wales spoke out against the post, with the health minister Vaughan Gething saying: “Good way to annoy 3m+ potential customers.”

READ MORE: British Airways told to rebrand as 'English' after rugby tweet sparks outrage

BBC presenter Huw Edwards also expressed his love for budget airline easyJet in response to the tweet.

And the Welsh campaign for independence Yes Cymru jumped on the post, responding: “To be clear, even when Wales becomes independent, it will still be a constituent part of the island of Britain.

“Your brand isn’t ‘UK Airways’, it’s ‘British Airways’.

“Regardless, we’ve had enough of this unequal, broken ‘Union’.

“It’s time for change.”

British Airways earlier declined to comment when The National approached them, but has now released a statement.

They said: “We are proud sponsors of England Rugby but on this occasion we unintentionally strayed offside, for which we are sorry."