Abu Dhabi is the latest casualty of continuing problems with British Airways’ fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, with the popular Middle Eastern route set to be axed from the airline’s network for the summer 2025 season.
British Airways only relaunched its London Heathrow to Abu Dhabi route in April after a hiatus of four years, prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The airline currently serves Abu Dhabi with a once-daily service on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. In comparison, the neighboring city of Dubai is served with up to three flights per day on various widebody jets, including the double-deck Airbus A380 superjumbo.
According to route tracking specialist ‘London Air Travel,’ British Airways will suspend its non-stop flight to Abu Dhabi for the entirety of the summer 2025 season, which runs from March 30, 2025, to October 25, 2025.
British Airways says it has been forced to slash several routes as a result of continuing issues with the Rolls-Royce Trent engines that power its 787 Dreamliner fleet.
Reliability issues mean that the engines require maintenance earlier than anticipated, but supply chain issues have exasperated the issues and have resulted in aircraft being grounded for much longer than planned.
British Airways says it tried to maintain its schedule by working its older Boeing 777s even harder, but with the Rolls-Royce engine issues still dragging on, the airline must now make time for the 777 jets to undergo maintenance.
In November, the airline said the Dreamliner problems were behind its decision to indefinitely suspend two popular routes from London Heathrow to Bahrain and Kuwait.
Following a public outcry, British Airways partially reversed its decision and will continue to serve Bahrain with a three-weekly service at the start of the summer 2025 season.
The airline is also pulling out of Dallas, Fort Worth, at the end of March 2025, although capacity will be picked up by its transatlantic joint venture partner, American Airlines.
At the same time, British Airways will also slash the number of flights it operates to Miami, while the airline has already axed its Beijing route and cut the number of services it operates to Hong Kong.
Last week, The International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned that supply chain issues had resulted in new aircraft deliveries plummeting by 30% from its peak of 1,813 aircraft in 2018.
The backlog of unfilled aircraft deliveries has now reached an unprecedented 17,000 planes, which means that airlines are now operating aircraft with a much older average age than in previous years.
If the rate of new aircraft deliveries fails to improve, IATA estimates that it will take 14 years to clear the backlog of unfilled aircraft orders.
Issues can’t be exasperated. Only exacerbated.