British Airways To Suspend Abu Dhabi Amid Trent 1000 Issues

British Airways (BA) is suspending flights between London and Abu Dhabi as the carrier grapples with supply chain issues relating to Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines that power its fleet of Boeing 787 aircraft.

The 3,426-mi. (2,977-nm) route between London Heathrow Airport and Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport will be paused during the summer 2025 travel season between March 30 and Oct. 25. The carrier currently serves the destinations daily using 787-9s.

BA only resumed the route in April 2024 after a four-year suspension because of the pandemic.

“We’re disappointed that we’ve had to make further changes to our schedule as we continue to experience delays to the delivery of engines and parts from Rolls-Royce—particularly in relation to the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines fitted to our 787 aircraft,” a BA spokesperson said.

“We’ve taken this action because we do not believe the issue will be solved quickly, and we want to offer our customers the certainty they deserve for their travel plans. We’ve apologized to those affected and are able to offer the vast majority a flight the same day with British Airways or one of our partner airlines.”

BA has already been forced into several network changes because of the Trent 1000 issues, pulling daily service from London Heathrow to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport during summer 2025 and cancelling operations to Kuwait International Airport.

Additionally, BA is also set to remove its second daily flight from London Heathrow to Miami, which was announced in September, while service between London Heathrow and New Delhi will be kept at 2X-daily in summer 2025, rather than 3X-daily as previously planned.

BA has also reduced capacity to Doha, Qatar, delayed the launch of a new service to Kuala Lumpur and cut flights between London Gatwick Airport and New York John F. Kennedy International Airport from Dec. 12 through March 25.

However, BA in November backtracked on plans to cancel its longstanding route between London Heathrow and Bahrain following discussions with “partners and stakeholders.” Service will instead be maintained next summer and beyond.