BA to reduce Middle East flights when services resume in July

British Airways will offer a reduced flight schedule to the Middle East when it resumes services in July, and use the aircraft to operate more direct flights to India and Kenya.The airline has currently suspended services to the region because of the Iran war, and plans to resume flights to Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, in mid-May, as well as services to Dubai, Doha and Tel Aviv on 1 July. It is cutting its Dubai flights from three – a day to one daily flight, and reducing services to Doha, Tel Aviv and Riyadh from two to one a day.It will drop Jeddah in Saudi Arabia permanently as a destination from 24 April. Flights to Bahrain and Amman are paused until 25 October.Flights to Larnaca in Cyprus are scheduled to resume on 22 May.BA said: “Due to the ongoing situation in the Middle East, we have made further changes to our flying schedule to provide greater clarity for our customers. We’re keeping the situation under constant review and are directly in touch with affected customers to offer them a range of options.”Since the war began, it has helped thousands of customers return home, operated relief flights, and added additional capacity on key long‑haul routes.“We will continue to assess and introduce further flying where possible,” said BA.At the same time, the carrier is putting larger aircraft on its Delhi route from 1 June, and also on its route to Hyderabad in India. BA is adding additional daily flights to Bengaluru in India and Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, over the summer until late October.The airline is also adding flights to Delhi and Mumbai over the summer, in new routing decisions first reported by the Financial Times.