British Airways has expanded its long-haul network for winter 2026, with two new destinations and extra capacity on several existing routes.
The expansion comes as BA announced it has extended cancellations on flights to Amman, Bahrain, Dubai and Tel Aviv up to and including 31 May, and flights to Doha until 30 April. Last week, it said it was cancelling flights until the end of this month and closing new bookings on Middle East routes until mid-April. Its seasonal Abu Dhabi route will not now operate until October.
The airline will start a daily, year-round service between London Heathrow and Melbourne on 9 January 2027, via Kuala Lumpur, and a three-times-a-week winter service to Colombo in Sri Lanka from London Gatwick on 23 October 2026.
The long-haul expansion, which also includes extra capacity on routes including Cape Town, Tokyo, Barbados, Bangkok and Singapore, represents a 9% year-on-year growth.
A third daily flight from Heathrow to Cape Town will start in December, while BA’s flight from Heathrow to Haneda in Tokyo goes from 10 per week to double daily from the end of March 2026 and continues throughout the winter schedule.
A daily Barbados flight from Gatwick will commence on 25 October. This new route will complement BA’s existing Heathrow-Barbados service, and will have onward connections to Grenada, Guyana and Tobago.
From 25 October, there will be a dedicated daily flight to St Lucia from Gatwick. BA is moving its Gatwick-San José, Costa Rica flight to Heathrow, and increasing the service to five per week.
Gatwick flights to Kingston, Jamaica and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic will increase to four per week.
For the US, flights to New Orleans will increase to four per week, Baltimore becomes daily and Houston flights increase to 12 per week.
Delhi will continue to be served three times a day, as the frequency growth introduced at the start of the summer season remains in place.
In addition to the planned growth for winter 2026, BA has also introduced seven additional return services from London to Bangkok and Singapore over recent weeks, to meet rising demand for these routes as a result of the situation in the Middle East. The airline has added more than 3,300 extra seats between 10 and 19 March for customers travelling to and from these destinations and said it will continue to review its schedule and add additional flights to destinations as needed.
BA said demand for travel ‘continues to remain strong’ and its holiday brand, British Airways Holidays has seen a rise in searches for popular destinations like Antigua and Gran Canaria, which have increased by 63% and 50% respectively.
BA Chief Planning and Strategy Office Neil Chernoff said: “These changes represent a significant investment in our long-haul leisure network, adding even more options and choice for our customers.
“Elsewhere, we know there is short-term demand as a result of the situation in the Middle East. To support customers with alternative routes from popular destinations we have already launched additional flights, and we will continue to monitor customer demand and add flights to our schedule if we’re able to do so.”
