British Airways boosts capacity from London-Heathrow to Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia

British Airways has announced that starting with the winter 2025/2026 season, it will increase capacity on flights from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) to select destinations in the Middle East, including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

On September 29, 2025, the British carrier affirmed that from October 27, 2025, which will mark the beginning of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) winter 2025/2026 season, it will offer daily flights from LHR to Bahrain International Airport (BAH).

(To note, IATA’s winter 2025/2026 season will officially start on October 26, 2025.)

This will double the number of times it will fly the route, adding over 9,000 additional seats to the LHR to BAH connection, providing “greater flexibility when planning business trips, family visits, or leisure getaways to the UK and further afield.”

Cirium’s Diio Mi showed that the airline will utilize its Boeing 777-200ERs, equipped with eight First, 49 Club World (business class), 40 World Traveller Plus (premium economy), and 138 World Traveller (economy) seats on the route.

Diio Mi also indicated that Gulf Air, Bahrain’s flag carrier, has double-daily departures on the route, operating the flights with its 787-9s, which can welcome up to 282 passengers, split between 26 business and 256 economy class travelers.

From LHR to Riyadh King Khalid International Airport (RUH), British Airways is planning 12 weekly departures during the winter season, growing to double-daily during the upcoming summer 2026 season, which IATA has scheduled to begin on March 29, 2026.

For now, SAUDIA and Virgin Atlantic are British Airways’ competitors on flights between LHR and RUH, with up to four-per-day and daily departures, respectively. However, with the imminent launch of Riyadh Air, competition could heat up, especially as British Airways has granted Riyadh Air remedy slots for daily flights between LHR and RUH.

In September 2024, Riyadh Air and Virgin Atlantic unveiled a “strategic cooperation memorandum of understanding (MoU), with the goal of introducing an array of benefits for customers traveling between London, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and destinations beyond.”

British Airways will also increase the number of weekly departures to Jeddah King Abdulaziz International Airport (JED), growing from four weekly to five weekly starting with the summer 2026 season. SAUDIA offers double-daily departures between LHR and JED, according to Cirium’s Diio Mi.

Last but not least, the British airline will return to flying from LHR to Abu Dhabi Zayed International Airport (AUH), with the carrier suspending operations on the route due to issues related to the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines powering its 787 aircraft.

In a statement at the time, it said that Rolls-Royce had failed to deliver Trent 1000 and spare parts on time, forcing it to cancel several routes, including the LHR-AUH connection, since it did not “believe the issue will be solved quickly, and we want to offer our customers the certainty they deserve for their travel plans.”

See my previous reporting about British Airways route cancellations here.

Now, British Airways plans daily services to AUH. Cirium’s Diio Mi showed that the airline last served the route on March 29, 2025, also offering daily departures from LHR to the capital of the UAE.

Except for Mondays (787-10) and Thursdays (787-8), the route will be operated by its 787-9s, equipped with eight First, 42 Club World, 40 World Traveller Plus, and 127 World seats, per Cirium’s Diio Mi. 

The tool also showed that Etihad Airways, the flag carrier of the UAE and Abu Dhabi, has scheduled four daily flights during the upcoming winter 2025/2026 season.

In addition to these four destinations with increased capacity, British Airways previously unveiled that it would fly to Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH) twice per day during the summer 2026 season, complementing its oneworld partner Qatar Airways’ up to 10 daily (!) frequencies between LHR and DOH.

One of those daily departures, flight QR 6, is operated with an Airbus A380.

British Airways’ Middle East network from LHR in November 2025 also includes flights to Amman Queen Alia International Airport (AMM), Dubai International Airport (DXB), and Tel Aviv Ben Gurion International Airport (TLV).