British Airways has announced a significant planned expansion to its network for winter 2026, with the addition of two new destinations, Melbourne in Australia and Colombo in Sri Lanka.
In addition, the airline will be adding more flights for winter to Cape Town (South Africa), Haneda (Tokyo), Bridgetown (Barbados), Kingston (Jamaica) and San Jose (Costa Rica).
The new schedule reflects a nine per cent growth in British Airways’ long-haul route network, as the airline continues to invest in providing more choice for customers.
These planned new routes and frequency growth for winter 2026 are in addition to short-term capacity increases to destinations to meet customer demand, as a result of the situation in the Middle East.
British Airways added seven extra return services to Bangkok and Singapore last week and will continue to review its schedule and add additional flights to destinations as needed.
Demand for travel continues to remain strong, and as customers look for alternative holiday destinations in the immediate term, British Airways Holidays has seen a rise in searches for popular destinations like Antigua and Gran Canaria, which have increased by 63% and 50% respectively.
Neil Chernoff, British Airways’ Chief Planning and Strategy Officer, said: “We’re delighted to announce sizeable growth to our flying schedule for winter 2026, including two notable new destinations that I’m confident will prove popular with our customers.
“We’re also increasing services across several high-demand routes around the world. Together, these changes represent a significant investment in our long-haul leisure network, adding even more options and choice for our customers.
“Elsewhere, we know there is short-term demand as a result of the situation in the Middle East. To support customers with alternative routes from popular destinations, we have already launched additional flights, and we will continue to monitor customer demand and add flights to our schedule if we’re able to do so.”
In a significant planned expansion to the winter 2026 schedule, the airline is increasing frequencies across several of its popular routes:
- A third daily flight from London Heathrow to Cape Town, South Africa, will start in December
- London Heathrow to Haneda in Tokyo, Japan increases to double daily from the end of March, and continues throughout the winter schedule
- A daily Barbados flight from London Gatwick will commence on 25 October, a new route that will complement the existing London Heathrow service to the Caribbean island, and will have onward tags to Grenada, Guyana and Tobago
- There is more dedicated capacity to St Lucia in the Caribbean, as daily flights become a standalone service from 25 October
- San José in Costa Rica increases to five per week, and moves to London Heathrow
- Kingston in Jamaica and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, both served from London Gatwick, will go up to four per week
- To the US, New Orleans increases to four per week, Baltimore becomes daily and Houston moves to 12 per week
- Delhi continues to be served three times a day, as the frequency growth introduced at the start of the summer season remains in place
- London Heathrow to Abu Dhabi will return for its planned winter schedule, operating daily from 25 October
