Virgin Atlantic has now confirmed that London Heathrow - Riyadh is suspended. Other frequency increases for the summer 2026 season are: - Bengaluru from 7 to 13 flights a week from 1 June - Las Vegas from 7 to 10 flights a week from 31 August to the end of the summer season

easyJet is to a launch a new route between London Gatwick and Newquay. Flights will operate twice weekly on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 23 June 2026.

British Airways has loaded a third daily flight between London Heathrow Terminal 5 and Singapore Changi, departing the following dates next week: BA13 Depart LHR 19:50 - Arrive SIN 17:20 (Monday 16 March) 
BA13 Depart LHR 19:55 - Arrive SIN 17:25 (Wednesday 18 March)

British Airways has loaded an additional flight between London Heathrow Terminal 5 and Bangkok, departing Thursday 19 March and returning Friday 20 March: BA19 Depart LHR 17:50 - Arrive BKK 12:40 BA20 Depart BKK 14:45 - Arrive LHR 21:05

Virgin Atlantic will suspend flights from London Heathrow to Dubai from 10 March until 28 March, when it was due to end for the season. Services to Riyadh are under continuous assessment & will be paused from 8 March, initially for two weeks.

No less than 14 years after the merger of bmi & BA, and the failed ventures of Little Red and Flybe, airlines are once again invited to bid for remedy slots to fly from London Heathrow to Aberdeen & Edinburgh.

Airlines are invited to apply for remedy slots to operate either a non-stop or one-stop service from London to Chicago from the Winter 2026/27 season onwards. It’s hard to envisage Virgin Atlantic having a third attempt at this route.

British Airways CEO Sean Doyle has confirmed that the first of 32 Boeing 787-10 aircraft ordered by the airline last year will be delivered to its base at Gatwick, to start the replacement of the Boeing 777-200 fleet.

The CMA has confirmed that Delta & Virgin Atlantic have been awarded remedy slots (presumably at Heathrow) to fly from London to Boston & Miami following its review of the AA/BA transatlantic joint-business.

British Airways will launch a new seasonal route from London City to Toulon from late May 2026. Flights will operate twice weekly on Saturday & Tuesday. BA8747 LCY 07:00 - TLN 10:00 (Sat) BA8748 TLN 10:45 - LCY 11:50 (Sat) BA8747 LCY 15:50 - TLN 18:50 (Tue) BA8748 TLN 19:30 - LCY 20:40 (Tue)

British Airways has suspended its summer seasonal service from London Gatwick to Salerno. The route launched last year & will not return in summer 2026.

Virgin Atlantic has used its take off and landing slots at London Heathrow as security to raise $745 million from funds managed by the asset management firm Apollo. The proceeds will be used to fund new aircraft deliveries and the refurbishment of Boeing 787-9 aircraft.

Qantas has released the first actual images of its “Project Sunrise” Airbus A350-1000 Ultra Long Range aircraft in Toulouse. The aircraft is due to have engines and flight test instruments installed this week in preparation for the test flight programme next year.

British Airways has confirmed that it will follow Virgin Atlantic & other airlines in adding Starlink WiFi to both short and long-haul aircraft from next year. BA has also confirmed that the long-awaited new smartphone app will now launch next year.

Cathay Pacific has announced that it plans to buy back all of Qatar Airways’ shareholding in the airline, subject to approval from its shareholders. Qatar’s current holding represents ~9.57% of the total issued shares of Cathay.

Virgin Atlantic flights from London Heathrow to Seoul are now back on sale for travel from Sunday 29 March 2026: VS208 LHR 14:10 - ICN 10:30 VS209 ICN 12:20 - LHR 18:50

Virgin Atlantic will launch a new winter seasonal route from London Heathrow to Phuket. Flights will operate three times weekly from 18 October 2026. The route will go on sale from 26 November 2025. VS214 LHR 12:00 - HKT 07:20 (Wed, Fri, Sun) VS215 HKT 09:20 - LHR 16:00 (Thu, Sat, Mon)

British Airways has also now suspended its summer seasonal service from London Gatwick to Las Vegas. These flights will end on Saturday 25 October and won’t resume as planned in March 2026. (Up to 3 flights a day to LAS did seem like too much.)

BA has also confirmed, amongst other relatively modest frequency changes, that New York JFK will be served from Heathrow only. An extra rotation has been loaded from mid-March: BA181 LHR 12:30 - JFK 15:30 BA182 JFK 00:20 - LHR 11:15

BA has also confirmed amongst other long-haul frequency changes for next summer that New York JFK will operate 9x daily exclusively from LHR.

British Airways will fly from London Gatwick to Bangkok year-round from next summer. The route was due to operate until the end of April 2026, but will continue three times weekly from May onwards.

Slots for flights from London to Boston, Chicago & Miami for the Summer 2026 season will shortly be put out to tender. The CMA has accepted proposals by AA & BA to make slots available to rival airlines for these routes, after consultation and with some slight modifications.

Lufthansa has transferred 72 weekly slots at London Heathrow to its short-haul subsidiary Lufthansa City Airlines for the winter 2025 season. These will be used to operate selected flights to Munich.

Riyadh Air has acquired a daily slot pair at London Heathrow from British Airways for the Winter 2025 season under the bmi remedy slot release mechanism.

British Airways has suspended its winter seasonal service from London City to Prague. The route was due to return in early November.

British Airways is to launch new winter seasonal routes from London Gatwick to Graz, Austria and Rabat, Morocco.

Virgin Atlantic has also confirmed it will refurbish its fleet of Boeing 787-9 aircraft from 2028, with an increase in Upper Class seats from 31 to 44, with 8 Retreat seats. Virgin also promises investments in its Clubhouses at Heathrow and New York JFK.

Virgin Atlantic is to install Starlink WiFi on its Boeing 787-9, Airbus A350-1000, and A330neo aircraft from Quarter 3 2026, with the installation expected to complete by the end of 2027.

British Airways has suspended its winter seasonal route from London Heathrow to Grenoble. The route will not return as planned in December. BA will continue to serve Grenoble from Gatwick.

Channel 5 will air what the TV industry terms a “fast-turnaround” documentary “Air India Disaster: What Really Happened?” on Wednesday 2 July at 8pm. This is produced by ITN with teams in the UK and Ahmedabad.

WestJet has applied to the Canadian Transportation Agency for regulatory approval for the charter airline Privilege Style to operate flights between the UK and Canada on its behalf from 7 to 19 June.

On 11 June, Sky Documentaries (UK) will air “Flight 149: Hostage of War” on the alleged government cover-up behind BA flight 149 from London Heathrow to Kuwait on 2 August 1990.

Virgin Atlantic will not resume flights between London Heathrow and Tel Aviv as planned this October. The route is now suspended permanently. Virgin will continue to offer a codeshare to Tel Aviv with EL AL.

Air Canada’s pivot to Europe continues. In addition to a new route from Montreal to Edinburgh, the airline is adding additional weekly frequencies from Toronto to Athens, Paris and Rome for the summer 2025 season.

American Airlines & British Airways propose to offer slots at either Gatwick or Heathrow for rival airlines to fly daily to Boston, Chicago and Miami. This follows a review by the Competitions & Markets Authority of the transatlantic joint business & is subject to consultation.

British Airways’ last remaining scheduled franchise route from London City to Billund now appears to be suspended indefinitely. There has been uncertainty around the future of this route, operated by SUN-AIR of Scandinavia A/S. for some time.

British Airways has once again added a third daily flight from London Heathrow to Cape Town for the Winter 2025/2026 season. The additional flight (BA45 / BA44) will depart Heathrow on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday from early November.

Not sure when this happened but British Airways' codeshare with JetBlue is now live. This does add more connection opportunities at Boston & New York JFK, as well as destinations not covered by the American Airlines joint-business like Martha's Vineyard & Nantucket.

Virgin Atlantic has announced a new codeshare agreement with WestJet to 13 destinations in Canada, when connecting to / from Virgin's own flights between London Heathrow and Toronto Pearson International.

British Airways is to purchase Boeing’s hangar and Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul (MRO) business at London Gatwick airport. This will be used to carry out minor 777 maintenance work & in source some heavy Airbus A320/321 maintenance.

British Airways’ daily flight from London Gatwick to Glasgow is scheduled to be operated by Emerald Airlines ATR 72 turboprop aircraft from the start of the summer 2025 season (though it’s not currently on sale). This replaces Airbus A320 aircraft operated by Heathrow crews.

Virgin Atlantic has advised its ending its codeshare on WestJet flights between London and Calgary from 30 March 2025. This coincides with the relaunch of Virgin’s own service from London Heathrow to Toronto.

It was 50 years ago today, on 12 January 1975, British Airways introduced its turn-up-and-go “Shuttle” service from London Heathrow to Glasgow. Passengers could arrive at the gate 10 minutes before departure & were guaranteed a seat as BA would have extra aircraft on standby.

WestJet plans to make an announcement regarding its summer 2025 schedule and a new international destination from Calgary at a media event on Monday 13th January.

British Airways has suspended London Heathrow - Abu Dhabi for the summer 2025 season. The route is currently due to return on Sunday 26 October 2025.

British Airways has confirmed that it has reversed its decision to suspend flights from London Heathrow to Bahrain from 2025. Flights are being reloaded into the timetable and should be back on sale shortly.

Virgin Atlantic is to cut short its winter seasonal service from London to Cape Town. The last flight will depart Heathrow on 30 March 2025, rather than 30 April. This is due on going issues securing parts from Rolls-Royce for its Boeing 787 fleet.

Welcome to London Air Travel on Bluesky. Here I'll continue to provide news on all airlines flying from London City, Gatwick and Heathrow airports, as on X/Twitter.