With tensions continuing to escalate, more airlines have cancelled Israel flights again, including British Airways and Wizz Air. BA said it will halt Israel flights from London Heathrow until at least Wednesday this week. Wizz Air is also ‘temporarily suspending flights to and from Israel’. Both airlines reintroduced flights to Tel Aviv earlier this year. “We’ve been continually monitoring the situation in the Middle East and have taken the operational decision to suspend our flights up to and including Wednesday 28 August,” a BA spokesperson said. “We’re contacting customers to advise them of their travel options.” So far, Wizz Air hasn’t given a timeline when it expects to resume Israel flights. In both cases, booked passengers can rebook or apply for a refund. There has been tit-for-tat air strikes and missile raids between Israel and Hezbollah. Virgin Atlantic said after a ‘security and safety assessment’ its current pause on Israel flights has been extended to September 25. “We have taken the difficult decision to delay the restart of our Tel Aviv services.” “Our teams will be in contact with those affected to discuss options, which include rebooking or a full refund.” 

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British Airways will scrap Beijing flights after the summer, citing the increasing cost of being forced to avoid Russian airspace. The airline, as well as others in Europe, still have to detour and fly longer routes to get to the far east. This makes it more costly in terms of fuel and crew time on duty. Other airlines including those from China can fly over Russian airspace giving them a commercial advantage. British Airways resumed Beijing flights in 2023, although demand has remained ‘weak’ CFO Nicholas Cadbury told investors last month. The airline said Beijing flights will be halted until November 2025, but will be under review. In addition, BA is cutting one of its two daily Hong Kong flights but will continue operating Shanghai flights. Virgin Atlantic recently said it will scrap Shanghai flights in October for the same reason. 

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  Finnair and IAG Loyalty have expanded their partnership, offering customers the opportunity to link their airline loyalty programme accounts. The new relationship will, for the first time, allow members to link their Finnair Plus and British Airways Executive Club accounts. This will allow the transfer of Avios across the respective airline loyalty accounts. This move is the next step of Finnair officially adopting Avios as its loyalty currency. From today, customers will have the ability to transfer Avios between accounts by simply logging into their Finnair Plus account at finnair.com, and choosing to link their British Airways Executive Club account. British Airways customers will also be able to easily transfer their Avios to Finnair, by logging into their Executive Club account on www.ba.com. Members will be able to transfer Avios as often as they wish, up to any value. For example, BA members can upgrade their travel class on a Finnair flight, or vice versa. The new initiative will also give customers increased opportunities to collect and use Avios, with access to both Finnair Plus awards and partners, but also to those of the British Airways Executive Club. Pekka Antila, Finnair Head of Loyalty, said: "As we continue on our journey into a new era with Finnair Plus, we are excited to be joining forces with British Airways.” "Customers will also enjoy a new and expanded range of opportunities to collect and use Avios.” "We know it will prove popular with customers in the UK, Finland, and across the world." Customers will also now have the option to link their British Airways Executive Club account and Qatar Airways Privilege Club or Iberia Plus account. Finnair Plus is now spend-based and includes more collect-and-use opportunities with Avios partners and offers extra rewards when reaching certain point limits within their existing tier. 

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British Airways has launched a trio of new European holiday routes as it returns to London Stansted. Nice, Florence, and Ibiza flights are operated by BA CityFlyer on Saturdays and Sundays on Embraer 190 aircraft. The flights will offer Club Europe and Euro Traveller cabin service. The Nice, Florence, and Ibiza flights join the recently announced new route to Split in Croatia from September. BA also continues its weekly Sunday charter service between London Stansted and Calvi this summer in conjunction with Corsican Places. It is the first time that British Airways has offered scheduled flights from London Stansted since before the pandemic. It’s the fourth London airport to be served by the flag carrier. The first flights to each of the three destinations took off on Sunday May 19. Ciaran Brannigan, London Stansted’s Commercial Director, said: “These new services to Ibiza, Florence and Nice are strong additions to our route network, which now covers over 200 destinations across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.” 

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British Airways has released details of its next long-haul Avios-Only flight. It will jet off to the Caribbean sunshine for half term next year. The Barbados flight will depart from London Heathrow on 15 February 2025, with the return also an Avios-only flight seven days later on 22 February 2025. It comes as BA celebrates 70 years of flying to the Caribbean island. Customers can purchase seats on the flight from £150 + 70,000 Avios. World Traveller Plus seats are from £330 + 135,000 Avios, and Club World (business class) seats are available from £450 + 200,000 Avios. British Airways launched Avios-only flights last year, with the first long-haul flight to Dubai selling out across all cabins in less than nine hours after it went on sale. Avios-only flights are made up of 100% Reward Seats. For all other flights, British Airways guarantees a minimum of 12 and 14 Reward Seats on standard short and long-haul flights respectively. In addition to the Barbados flight, BA also published an Avios-only return flight from London to Geneva for February 2025. More than 30 Avios-only flights have been put on sale since the initiative launched last year, including to Corfu, Ibiza and Nice. 

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British Airways is set to resume two key nonstop routes to Southeast Asia. BA will restart Bangkok flights from October. The airline will operate three direct Bangkok flights a week from London Gatwick on Boeing 777-200ER aircraft. The following month sees the return of direct Kuala Lumpur flights on Dreamliner aircraft. This route will depart London Heathrow daily. British Airways is also returning to Abu Dhabi on April 20, as well as welcoming Agadir in Morrocco on March 31 and adding Izmir in Turkey to its network on May 18. At the same time, British Airways announced a comprehensive £7 billion transformation plan across many areas of the business. CEO Sean Doyle outlined the modernisation plan, covering the onboard experience, updated IT systems and focusing on sustainability. “We’re on a journey to a better BA for our people and for our customers, underpinned by a transformation programme that will see us invest £7 billionn over the next two years,” Doyle said. BA will overhaul its website and app offering more personalization. Initial changes will start to roll out by the end of the year. 

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British Airways has celebrated a milestone with 10 years of flying nonstop to Austin, TX from London. Since its inaugural service on March 3, 2014, BA has flown more than 1.25 million passengers to and from Austin and the UK. The airline held celebrations at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport ahead of the London bound departure of BA190 There was live music, giveaways, and commemorative speeches. Neil Chernoff, Chief Planning and Strategy Officer at BA said: "Celebrating ten years of flying between Austin and London is a testament to the strong relationship we've built with this incredible city and its people.” The celebratory flight was piloted by a first officer named Austin. "It's an honour to be part of this special milestone, connecting two incredible cities," he said. Customers flying from Austin this month will enjoy a Texas-inspired barbecue menu on board. The menu will include Austin favourites lightly smoked beef brisket and BBQ chicken. British Airways flies nonstop to London from 26 cities in the US. 

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British Airways confirmed it will restart Israel flights from 1 April. The airline postponed all flights in October following the Israel – Hamas conflict. BA will resume with four flights per week. The airline expects fairly weak demand initially for Israel flights and is deploying smaller aircraft on the route. "We've taken the commercial decision to move Tel Aviv to our short-haul network when we restart our flights,” the airline said. "This aligns with other similar length flights we operate, and we'll keep this decision under review." The Israel flights will include a quick stopover in Cyprus for a crew change. Passengers will stay onboard during the 45-minute stop. This pitstop is so crew do not have an overnight layover in Tel Aviv due to the security situation in Israel. The service will be operated on single aisle Airbus A321neo aircraft rather than wide body planes it previously flew to Tel Aviv 

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A British Airways flight attendant abruptly collapsed and died in front of seated passengers just prior to takeoff at London Heathrow. The 52-year-old man was prepping for takeoff on a Hong Kong flight. It happened just moments before the jet pulled away from the gate. The captain called for any professional medical assistance, and a passenger helped with CPR. Emergency services personnel attended the scene but could not be saved. “Sadly, despite the best efforts of our crews, a patient was pronounced dead at the scene,’ London Ambulance Service said. The early evening incident caused the flight to be delayed overnight. Passengers were accommodated in local hotels and departed the following day. A BA spokesperson said: ‘Our thoughts are with our colleagues’ friends and family at this incredibly sad time.’ Just a week earlier a BA flight attendant was found dead in their layover hotel room in the US.  

The UK is at a ‘competitive disadvantage’ post Brexit regarding air travel, says British Airways boss Sean Doyle. The Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme adds extra red tape, time and expense for travellers connecting through UK hubs. Visa-exempt transit passengers are required to pay a £10 fee and wait up to three days for confirmation. Connecting flights are an important segment for British Airways, Doyle says. It ‘put carriers like British Airways at a competitive disadvantage to European hubs.’ Doyle was presenting to aviation leaders at the Airline 2023 conference in London. “We need to make sure by stealth we don’t make our industry uncompetitive.” BA says around 40% of its traffic to Heathrow is connecting. Most countries do not charge for transiting through a country via an international hub airport. The ETA is live for nationals of Qatar, however the aviation industry has expressed concerns about the fee. These include trade groups Airlines UK and BAR UK.

British Airways will restore Abu Dhabi flights next year, after a four-year gap. Available to book now, the route will resume on 20 April 2024. It will fly year-round daily Abu Dhabi flights from London Heathrow. The route will be operated on Boeing 787-9 aircraft in summer 2024 and joins UAE flights to neighbouring Dubai, which operate up to three-times daily. To mark the launch, BA has return fares from £449 in World Traveller (economy). Neil Chernoff, BA Director of Network and Alliances, said: “Abu Dhabi is a unique destination that is making a very welcome return to our network.” “We look forward to welcoming customers back as we grow our footprint in the UAE.”

British Airways has unveiled its latest Avios only flights. New Avios flights were just released to Florence, Mallorca, Faro, Corfu and Ibiza. It adds up an extra 1,250 fares for summer starting at £1 + 25,500 Avios. All travel periods fall over the August Bank Holiday for the new Avios flights. Avios-only flights were launched earlier this year, with 100% of the seats exclusively available to British Airways Executive Club Members as rewards seats. The latest release brings the total number of Avios-only flights to nearly 30. It includes departures from London City Airport for the first time. Avios only seats are sold as normal reward seats Apart from the Avios only services, there is a guarantee of at least 12 reward seats on standard short haul and 14 for long-haul flights. Members booking the Avios only flight can do so in any cabin. The first Avios only flight sold out in less than 24 hours and takes off for Sharm El Sheikh from London Gatwick on 3 November 2023. From 18 October 2023, Avios rolls out new changes to how Avios points are earned. Members will collect Avios points based on the cost of their ticket, rather than the distance of their flight. BA predicts this will generate 20% more Avios from flying for the overall member base. It says most members will either collect more or the same amount under the new model.