British Airways (BA) will suspend flights between London and Beijing in late October, citing the ongoing closure of Russian airspace and weaker demand.
The move comes less than a month after fellow UK-based carrier Virgin Atlantic announced plans to halt its sole route to mainland China, blaming “significant challenges and complexities” resulting from not being able to overfly Russia.
In a statement, BA confirmed that its London Heathrow (LHR)-Beijing Daxing (PKX) service will be paused from Oct. 26. The 5,090-mi. (4,423-nm) route is currently served four times per week using Boeing 777 aircraft. However, daily BA 787-9 flights to Shanghai will continue, alongside daily operations to Hong Kong.
BA resumed scheduled service to Beijing in June 2023 following a suspension of more than three years because of the pandemic. However, like Virgin Atlantic, BA is facing increased costs on many Asian routes because it is unable to overfly Russia.
