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British Airways to halt flights to Beijing from Oct. 26

British Airways is stopping flights to Beijing from Oct. 26 till November 2025, it said on Thursday without elaborating on the reason, as European providers struggle with a ban on flying over Russian airspace.

The airline, owned by IAG, stated it would continue flying daily to Shanghai and Hong Kong. It did not state whether it would introduce a brand-new route to replace the Beijing one.

European and British carriers are not able to fly over Russian airspace, which implies flying to Asia takes a few hours longer than it utilized to. That makes it more costly and less attractive to clients.

British Airways just restored the Beijing path just over a year ago after a pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Traffic from China to Europe has been really slow to recover given that the lifting of COVID-19 limitations, with numerous flights on the path now dominated by Chinese carriers.

Virgin Atlantic also recently announced it would end its path to Shanghai in October.

Groups such as Lufthansa have stated competitors from Chinese carriers, which are permitted to fly over Russian airspace, has cut into their revenues, with Lufthansa's yields falling on paths on which it competes with the carriers.

IAG has said that it is not highly affected as much of its core organization is concentrated on North and South America, where bookings and need stay strong.

(source: Reuters)