British Airways has outlined its summer 2026 schedule, which compared with new routes being launched by other airlines does not exude great growth ambition. Presumably this is in large part a consequence of Heathrow’s slot capacity continuing to be highly constrained and also maintenance problems with some of the long haul planes.
Should either partial mixed use (arrivals and departures on the same runway) or a third runway ever come to pass it will be interesting to see if BA can regain a sense of the momentum that now seems the preserve of the Gulf carriers, Turkish Airlines and Ethiopian, with Turkish Airlines alone, for example, seeking to add 25 new cities to its network from Monrovia (Liberia) to Minneapolis. Or will BA continue it’s retreat into essentially focusing on providing a profitable air bridge between the U.S. and Europe….
In any event, BA’s main news is that it will extend the service from London to Bangkok, which restarted last year after a four-year hiatus but as a winter route only, into an all year service. There will be three flights weekly to the Thai capital (one fewer than Norse from Gatwick!). This will increase to six times weekly in winter. British Airways says the extended service equates to “nearly 60,000 additional seats for customers looking to visit Bangkok next year.”
British Airways is also adding one service weekly to Kingston, Jamaica, bringing the total to four flights per week next summer, and increasing connectivity to the Middle East, with the re-introduction of a daily service to Bahrain, as well as 14 services weekly to Riyadh and Doha, and five flights per week to Jeddah.
With it’s bread and butter services to North America, BA will fly twice daily from London Heathrow to Miami, and daily to Dallas-Fort Worth. Its service to Las Vegas increases by three flights a week to 13 times weekly from Heathrow, and flights to San Diego and Austin also increase to 14 times weekly.
British Airways has also revealed that flights to John F. Kennedy International Airport will be departing exclusively from London Heathrow come next summer, ending the seasonal daily flights from London Gatwick.
The one daily flight from London Gatwick will be relocated to Heathrow, bringing the total number of daily departures to New York from Heathrow to nine. The carrier says the move is to improve connections “to Europe, the US and further afield”.
All very good and very welcome (except losing the Gatwick flight to JFK), but really it is a bit underwhelming isn’t it? Come on BA, show a but of ambition for goodness sake……