While the London-New York route is among the busiest in the world (during peak travel periods, the number of daily flights between the two cities on different airlines can reach 40), recent months have seen a reduction in some carriers’ ability to run it.
As it waits for delivery of the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines it needs for its Boeing 787 (BA) planes, United Kingdom’s flagship carrier, British Airways, has been forced to suspend a number of flights into 2025. Among the cuts: the popular flight between London’s Gatwick Airport (LGW) and New York’s JFK it launched in 2015 alongside its service to London Heathrow (LHR).
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The flight to Gatwick will be suspended between December 12 and March 25, 2025 as is a London-Kuala Lumpur route that was also run on the 787 plane and will now be canceled until April 2025.
BA to travelers: ‘We do not believe the issue will be solved quickly’
The delay comes down to supply chain disruptions on the Rolls-Royce end while the planes cannot be run without the engines. While Boeing 777s can be used in place of the 787 for some flights, there is not enough to fill capacity as 15% of the airline’s fleet remains grounded.
“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,” a British Airways representative said in a statement on the cancelations. The spokesperson added that the airline “continue[s] 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.”
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British Airways customers who need to travel between London and New York before next spring will therefore only be able to fly through London Heathrow.
On that end, United Airlines (UAL) is making its own series of cuts that come down to low demand rather than engine trouble. In the summer of 2025, the carrier will be running flights between LHR and LAX in Los Angeles daily instead of the initially hoped-for twice a day and its route between London and Washington-Dulles (IAD) twice instead of three times a day.
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This is why BA and United are canceling what were once very popular routes
The reductions come amid waning demand and competition from other carriers such as British Airways, Delta Air Lines (DAL) and Virgin Atlantic.
At the end of 2023, Virgin Atlantic announced a service expansion that included increasing the number of flights between London and New York to seven per day and between London and Boston to twice a day. These numbers were eventually pulled back once the summer season passed while the airline is yet to announce how often it plans to run them in the summer of 2025.
"Next summer, the airline will offer a record number of flights between London and New York, with a seventh daily flight to JFK, and together with Joint Venture partner Delta, will offer ten daily services to the Big Apple, an increase of 11% compared to summer 2023," Virgin said at the time.
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