British Airways Suspends London-Beijing Flights Amid Airspace Challenges

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.

“[The suspension] currently affects flights until November 2025, and we will keep our schedule under review,” a statement from BA says. “Like other UK carriers, we are not able to use Russian airspace which means our flight time is considerably longer—this also has a commercial implication.”

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.

This follows Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in spring 2022, which prompted several countries to impose sanctions on Russian airlines, leading to Russia closing its airspace to many international carriers in retaliation. At the same time, Chinese carriers continue to use Russian airspace on their routes to Europe, giving them a competitive edge.

Speaking on a half-year earnings call on Aug. 2, BA CEO Sean Doyle said that the Oneworld alliance member is experiencing different levels of performance in Asia. 

“North Asia has been a challenge, and we see demand out of markets like China are well below the amount of capacity that we have in the market,” he said. “But then if we look at Southeast Asia, it's performing very well. And in fact, our confidence in Southeast Asia is leading to us adding Kuala Lumpur back into the network in winter, and we're launching Bangkok from Gatwick.”

BA is one of three carriers serving the London-Beijing market nonstop at present. Air China flies double-daily between LHR and Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK), as well as offering a daily service from PEK to London Gatwick Airport. China Southern Airlines serves LHR-PKX daily.

Currently, there are approximately 19,900 two-way weekly seats available between London and Beijing, with BA providing around 2,200 seats and holding an 11% share of the market. In August 2019, prior to the pandemic and the closure of Russian airspace, the airline accounted for about 25% of the capacity available, offering about 4,200 weekly seats.