BA cuts Middle East routes

British Airways is reopening some Middle East routes this summer, but on a much smaller map than before. The airline said Jeddah in Saudi Arabia will be dropped for good, Riyadh will return in mid-May at one flight a day instead of two, and Dubai, Doha, and Tel Aviv will restart on July 1 with one daily flight each. (reuters.com) (theguardian.com) Two other routes are staying dark even longer. British Airways said Bahrain and Amman in Jordan will remain suspended until the end of the summer schedule on October 24, which means the carrier is still treating parts of the region as too unstable for a normal return. (theguardian.com) (marketwatch.com) Before these cuts, British Airways was flying three times a day to Dubai and twice a day to Riyadh, Doha, and Tel Aviv from London Heathrow. The new plan takes all four cities down to a single daily service, so the airline is keeping a flag in the market without committing the same number of planes and crews. (marketwatch.com) (finance.yahoo.com) This is the aftershock of a bigger disruption that started in late February. British Airways had already suspended or canceled flights to Abu Dhabi, Amman, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai, Tel Aviv, and Riyadh because of airspace restrictions and the wider security crisis in the Middle East. (britishairways.com) (reuters.com) Airlines work like a bus company with a fixed number of vehicles: if one corridor becomes risky or unprofitable, those aircraft get sent somewhere else. British Airways said the planes freed up by these cuts will be shifted toward India and Africa instead of sitting idle. (reuters.com) (theguardian.com) The new flights show exactly where British Airways thinks demand is sturdier. Reports on the schedule change say the airline will add service to New Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Nairobi, giving more of its long-haul capacity to India and East Africa while the Gulf remains volatile. (reuters.com) (bloomberg.com) That shift also changes how passengers connect. Fewer British Airways seats to Dubai, Doha, and Riyadh means fewer one-ticket options through London for travelers heading into the Gulf, while more seats to Indian and African cities make those markets a bigger part of the airline’s summer network. (theguardian.com) (reuters.com) Jeddah stands out because this is not a pause. Reports say British Airways will end the Heathrow-Jeddah route on April 24, turning what began as a regional security problem into a permanent network cut. (independent.co.uk) (reuters.com) For summer travelers, the practical effect is simple: fewer frequencies mean less flexibility. A route with three daily departures can absorb missed connections and schedule changes much more easily than a route with one, so British Airways is still coming back to the Middle East, but with a timetable that leaves much less slack. (marketwatch.com) (theguardian.com)