British Airways Makes a Move as Middle East Carriers Falter: Return of Melbourne Flights After Two Decade Absence

British Airways appears to have made a major move as the war in Iran causes serious pain for so-called ‘super connector’ airlines based in the Middle East, such as Emirates, Etihad Airways, and even its own investor, Qatar Airways.

After a more than two-decade absence, British Airways has announced that it is set to return to Melbourne, Australia, from January 9, 2027, with a new direct flight from London Heathrow that makes a short stopover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

British Airways flight BA33 will depart London Heathrow (LHR) daily at 9:10 pm and then arrive in Melbourne at 6:40 am two days later after a short stopover in Kuala Lumpur. Return fares start from £1,130.

The news comes just three years after rumors abounded that British Airways was seriously considering a return to Melbourne.

The rumors emerged in 2020 when pilots noticed that the onboard airport navigation system (OANS) on BA’s new Airbus A350s had been loaded with the dataset for Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport.

Airlines buy each airport data set separately, and they don’t come cheap, so if an airport is listed in the OANS, there’s at least some probability that an airline has at least considered launching flights to that destination.

In fact, it was the OANS that alerted pilots to the fact that British Airways was going to be sending its A350s to Austin and Boston long before the airline officially announced the routes.

Unfortunately, widespread fleet issues and aircraft availability caused by Rolls-Royce engine problems on BA’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, along with continuing delays in the new Boeing 777X program, meant that British Airways didn’t have the spare aircraft to launch this route.

Now, at long last, those fleet issues are being resolved.

In fact, British Airways is planning a 9% growth to its long-haul network with the addition of a new non-stop flight from London Gatwick to Colombo, Sri Lanka, and frequency additions to Cape Town, Barbados, Kingston Jamiaca, and San Jose in Costa Rica.

“We’re delighted to announce sizeable growth to our flying schedule for winter 2026, including two notable new destinations that I’m confident will prove popular with our customers,” commented Neil Chernoff, BA’s chief planning and strategy officer.

“These changes represent a significant investment in our long-haul leisure network, adding even more options and choice for our customers.”

While these new flights are months away, British Airways says it is also shifting capacity in the short term to better service passengers who have been hit by flight cancellations in the Middle East.

In recent days, BA has already introduced seven additional return services from London to Bangkok and Singapore, and the airline says it is closely monitoring the situation to shift further capacity to the Far East should the need arise.

The airline certainly has the capacity: Yesterday, the airline confirmed that it was extending the cancellation of flights to four destinations in the Middle East (Amman, Bahrain, Dubai, and Tel Aviv) until May 31, while flights to Doha have been scrapped until April 30 at the earliest.

In addition, British Airways has already announced the cancellation of flights to Abu Dhabi until Winter 2026.

British Airways Holidays has already seen a significant shift in booking behavior by passengers who would ordinarily be booking flights to destinations like Dubai. In the last couple of weeks, package holiday searches for Barbados have surged 46%, Antigua searches have risen by 63%, while the Maldives and Mauritius are up 32% and 42%, respectively.