British Airways to halt flights to Beijing from Oct 26

The airline, owned by IAG, said it would continue flying daily to Shanghai and Hong Kong. It did not say whether it would introduce a new route to replace the Beijing one.

European and British carriers are unable to fly over Russian airspace, which means flying to Asia takes a few hours longer than it used to. That makes it more expensive and less appealing to customers.

British Airways only reinstated the Beijing route just over a year ago after a pause due to the Covid pandemic.

Traffic from China to Europe has been very slow to recover since the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, with many flights on the route now dominated by Chinese carriers.

Virgin Atlantic also recently announced it would end its route to Shanghai in October.