BA’s Heathrow-Beijing route will stop in October this year
British Airways has announced it will stop its direct London to Beijing flight from October this year.
The BA service flew from London Heathrow to Beijing Daxing Airport.
They announced the service to Beijing would end on October 26th. The route would be suspended until November 2025.
No specific reason was given for the change. However, European carriers have been struggling with long-haul flights to East Asia since being banned from flying across Russian airspace. This has increased journey time and costs.
Chinese carriers are still able to cross Russian airspace, making them more competitive.
BA are the last British carrier flying direct to Beijing. Several Chinese carriers offer direct flights to Beijing from London and other UK cities including Manchester and Edinburgh.
The change comes just over a year after BA reinstated the Beijing flight. It restarted in June 2023 after a three-year break because of Covid-19.
Last year, it described the Beijing service as “one of our most important routes”.
BA will continue to fly to Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Separately, Virgin Atlantic also recently announced it would end its route to Shanghai in October. It was the last destination Virgin Atlantic flew to in China.
