British Airways cancels more long-haul flights as squeeze on intercontinental capacity intensifies

The Man Who Pays His Way: Plane problems spell fewer choices and higher prices for passengers

Distant dream: Kuala Lumpur in the 1950s, as portrayed by BOAC – now part of British Airways (British Airways)

“Kuala Lumpur’s head-turning skyline offers the best of both old and new, with skyscrapers, minarets and Mughal-style domes making up the architecture of the city.” So says British Airways in its publicity for a revived route between London Heathrow and the Malaysian capital – a link it first served in 1956.

But anyone hoping to fly on BA33 for a winter warmer is learning this weekend that their flight has been cancelled. They are among around 200,000 prospective passengers whose plans have been torn up due to “delays to the delivery of engines and parts from Rolls-Royce” to British Airways.

BA, and by extension its passengers, have endured a tough summer. Hundreds of flights have been cancelled at short notice. Routes served by the Airbus 380 have been particularly hard hit, with repeated cancellations or substitutions of smaller aircraft – the latter happened with Saturday’s round-trip to Boston.

British Airways also faces shortages in its Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet. To try to improve the resilience of an operation that has been creaking under the strain of the summer, BA has made wholesale cuts to its route network this winter.

In a bid to reduce the number of short-notice cancellations, the airline is freeing up the equivalent of three long-haul, wide-bodied planes each day between November/December and March/April – by making long-notice cancellations.

The Heathrow-Kuala Lumpur link is one of the casualties, with the route resurrection deferred until April 2025. People who have already booked will be offered a choice of switching to Malaysia Airlines or a full refund. The same choice awaits passengers booked on BA’s daily London Gatwick-New York JFK, which over the past few decades has probably been the airline’s most “on/off” route in the timetable; between 12 December and the end of March 2025, it’s off. Instead, British Airways has eight flights a day from Heathrow to JFK on what is the airline’s prime intercontinental route.

Probably hardly anyone will notice the third winter cancellation: one of BA’s two daily London Heathrow-Doha links will be grounded. With Qatar Airways (part-owner of BA) offering eight departures on the route, on planes up to and including the Airbus A380, there should be plenty of space. But plane problems spell fewer choices and higher prices for passengers.

Even if British Airways sends only a couple of dozen passengers a day to each of those Qatar Airways departures, fares for the rest of us will rise and availability will fall. The same applies to Malaysia Airlines, which will pick up the BA travellers who have been told the launch of flights from Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur has been cancelled for now. And while London-New York is awash with capacity, taking 300-plus seats out of the market will make Christmas and New Year flights even more expensive.

British Airways spells out the problems it is facing: “We’re disappointed that we’ve had to make further changes to our schedule as we continue to experience delays to the delivery of engines and parts from Rolls-Royce – particularly in relation to the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines fitted to our 787 aircraft.

“We’ve taken this action because we do not believe the issue will be solved quickly, and we want to offer our customers the certainty they deserve for their travel plans.

“We continue to work closely with Rolls-Royce to ensure the company is aware of the impact its issues are having on our schedule and customers, and seek reassurance of a prompt and reliable solution.”

A Rolls-Royce spokesperson responded by saying: “We continue to work with British Airways and all of our customers to minimise the impact of the limited availability of spares due to the current supply chain constraints.

“Unfortunately, this is an issue affecting the whole aerospace industry.”

Globally, things are likely to get worse before they get better. Boeing has been through extreme business turbulence since it sold Boeing 737 Max jets with built-in lethal features to Lion Air of Indonesia and Ethiopian Airlines – leading to the tragic loss of 346 lives. Its planemaking processes are under scrutiny by the aviation authorities. And a month ago a long and bitter strike by machinists (engineers) began, closing down production of desperately needed new planes.

On Friday Boeing’s new chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, announced one in 10 workers will lose their jobs and the first Boeing 777Xs will be delayed even further to 2026 – astonishingly six years behind schedule.

The hundreds of last-generation long-haul jets, from Boeing 747s to Airbus A340s, are mostly growing old in the desert. Some of them may even find buyers as airlines battle to fill the gaps in their schedules.

Meanwhile, it is a good time to swap intercontinental travel for shorter distances – ideally on trains and ships, not planes.

Simon Calder, also known as The Man Who Pays His Way, has been writing about travel for The Independent since 1994. In his weekly opinion column, he explores a key travel issue – and what it means for you.