British Airways suspends flights to Beijing
British Airways has warned it will be axing its “most important route”. British Airways is to suspend its direct flights between London Heathrow and Beijing and the UK national carrier announced that the service to the Chinese capital would halt on 26 October 2024.
At the time, this was described as one of the carrier’s “most important routes” by British Airways’ director of worldwide airports, Louise Street. She said: “The restart of one of our most important routes after more than three years is a long-awaited moment for all of us at British Airways.”
She went on: “Following the successful resumption of flights between Shanghai and London in April, we’re excited to be back in Beijing too, reuniting families and friends and facilitating international student and business travel once again.
“We are looking forward to working hand-in-hand with our joint business partner China Southern, to provide wider transit options and various benefits to our customers in China and the UK.” In a call with investors last month, Nicholas Cadbury, the chief financial officer of BA’s parent company IAG, said the carrier faced “weak demand” in China, according to the BBC.
A British Airways spokesperson said: “We will be pausing our route to Beijing from October 26 and we’re contacting any affected customers with rebooking options or to offer them a full refund. We continue to operate daily flights to Shanghai and Hong Kong.”
Although BA did not give reasons for its suspension of the route, flights to Asia from Europe have become increasingly costly and time-consuming since the war in Ukraine meant western airlines had to avoid Russian airspace.
BA will suspend flights until at least November 2025, although it will keep the schedule under review. Virgin Atlantic recently also decided it could no longer operate to Shanghai, on similar grounds, closing its only Chinese route from the autumn after restarting last year.
History of British Airways
British Airways PLC was created in 1974 after a British Airways Board was established by the British government to manage the two nationalised airline corporations, British Overseas Airways Corporation and British European Airways, and two regional airlines, Cambrian Airways and Northeast Airlines. On 31 March 1974, all four companies were merged to form British Airways. However, it marked 2019 as its centenary based on predecessor companies. After almost 13 years as a state company, BA was privatised in February 1987 as part of a wider privatisation plan by the then Conservative government. The carrier expanded with the acquisition of British Caledonian in 1987, Dan-Air in 1992, and British Midland International in 2012.
The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers carried, behind easyJet. In January 2011 BA merged with Iberia, creating the International Airlines Group (IAG), a holding company registered in Madrid, Spain. IAG is the world’s third-largest airline group in terms of annual revenue and the second-largest in Europe. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and in the FTSE 100 Index. British Airways is the first passenger airline to have generated more than US$1 billion on a single air route in a year (from 1 April 2017, to 31 March 2018, on the New York-JFK – London-Heathrow route).
It is a founding member of the Oneworld airline alliance, along with American Airlines, the now-defunct Canadian Airlines, Cathay Pacific, and Qantas. The alliance has since grown to become the third-largest, after SkyTeam and Star Alliance.