In a move that will take many by surprise, British Airways has revealed plans to discontinue operating direct flights from its main hub at London-Heathrow Airport (LHR) to Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) in Texas in summer 2025. The airline will also be scaling back services to Miami, in Floria, dropping from twice-daily flights to a single daily service.
The airline has had a long history serving Dallas-Fort Worth, a route it inherited from British Caledonian Airways (which operated it from London-Gatwick Airport (LGW) with DC10s) when the carriers merged in 1988. British Airways has used a range of aircraft on the route over the years which is currently served daily using a Boeing 777-300ER.
Originally, British Airways had planned to use the A380 for the route in the summer of 2025, a plan which was later amended to the smaller A350-1000. The carrier’s A380 fleet has also served the route in the past.
The move to cut flights to DFW comes as British Airways and its close oneworld partner American Airlines coordinate schedules and capacities for the 2025 northern summer season. DFW is American Airlines’ main hub and is currently served four times daily from Heathrow also using Boeing 777-300ERs. The airlines have often worked together on coordinating schedules, fares, and loyalty schemes in the past under the terms of their transatlantic joint venture.
According to sources at the airline, British Airways will completely discontinue its London to Dallas route as of March 30, 2025, the date on which the airline industry switches to the IATA summer scheduling season. However, to compensate for the cut, American Airlines will add a fifth daily flight between Dallas and London, with timings matching those of the current British Airways (BA192/193) service.
American’s takeover of the London-Dallas route will play to that carrier’s advantage. The airline is a powerhouse at DFW with robust onward connections across Latin America and Asian destinations in particular. However, given that the airline has been struggling with capacity issues due to late Boeing 787 Dreamliner deliveries from Boeing, it begs the question as to where the airline is finding the additional aircraft to operate the extra daily service.
However, American recently announced the postponement of its planned Boeing 777-300ER fleet refurbishment program which is likely to have freed up some spare capacity for such flight frequency increases. This program will now not commence until “late 2025”, according to the airline.
Miami route faces cuts
It is not only Dallas that will take a hit in the summer of 2025. British Airways has confirmed it will reduce flights from Heathrow to Miami International Airport (MIA) in the summer of 2025, dropping from a twice-daily frequency to a single daily flight. Once more, American Airlines will be stepping into the breach, picking up the dropped flight and operating it with its own equipment.
Speaking with AirlineGeeks on November 5, 2024, a British Airways spokesperson confirmed that the adjustments in its frequencies for summer 2025 are being made due to ongoing issues with Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines that power its Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet which operates many of the carrier’s long-haul flights.
“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 concerning the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines fitted to our 787 aircraft,” the spokesperson said.
“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’ve apologized to those affected and can offer the vast majority a flight on the same day with British Airways or one of our partner airlines. 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 the reassurance of a prompt and reliable solution” the spokesperson added.
In October 2024, the airline announced the dropping of London-Gatwick Airport to New York-JFK (JFK) flights and the postponement of a new Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur (KUL) service for the same reasons, stating that the aircraft capacity slated to operate these services was now needed elsewhere in the carrier’s network.