London Heathrow is the busiest long-haul airport on the planet, averaging 239 daily long-haul departures through 2026, and British Airways alone accounts for about 80 of them. That scale makes every route decision from the UK flag carrier noticeable — and three destinations have just fallen off the map.
The biggest casualty is Abu Dhabi. Flights were suspended when conflict in the region escalated in early 2026, with a return planned for October. That has since slipped twice: first to March 2027, and now to winter 2027/2028 at the earliest. If you were hoping to fly BA nonstop to the UAE capital next year, plan for a connection via Dubai or another hub instead.
Jeddah is gone too, with service ending in April 2026. Interestingly, BA says the problem isn't demand — it's money. The Saudi city simply doesn't generate enough premium-cabin traffic compared with Riyadh, where yields are far healthier. Jeddah has a long history with BA: flights ran until 2005, resumed in 2009, stopped again during the pandemic, and returned in winter 2024 using Dreamliners. Now the route is off, while Riyadh grows. Next summer, Riyadh will see five daily Heathrow departures across BA, Riyadh Air and Saudia — while Jeddah gets by on Saudia's one to two daily flights alone. Saudia itself dropped its Gatwick-Jeddah service in March 2026, and Wizz Air followed in July.
This all builds on Kuwait's cancellation back in March 2025, which ended more than 60 years of service. Bahrain is technically still on the books — suspended since February 2026 but nominally scheduled to return in March 2027 — so it doesn't count as cancelled yet.
On the transatlantic side, Heathrow-Orlando has had a strange life. BA ran the route during the pandemic only because it had temporarily abandoned Gatwick, then kept it as a one-off autumn flight in 2023, 2024 and 2025. This summer it finally ran as a genuine scheduled service: three weekly flights from July 21 to August 29, timed for UK school holidays and flown by 777-200ERs and 777-300ERs to top up the long-standing Gatwick operation. Whether it repeats in 2027 is unknown. There's also a curious one-off in the system: an A350-1000 from Heathrow to Orlando on November 2, departing 8:00 AM and arriving 12:35 PM local time — bookable now, though with no inbound flight scheduled.
Why does this matter for travellers? If your plans involve Abu Dhabi, Jeddah or Kuwait, BA is no longer a nonstop option from Heathrow, and Gatwick offers no rescue. Etihad, Saudia and other carriers still serve these cities, and Riyadh is actually getting more capacity than ever. Orlando fans, meanwhile, should keep an eye on whether the school-holiday Heathrow experiment returns — otherwise it's Gatwick as usual.
