British Airways announces restart of flights from London-Heathrow to Jeddah

by AvioBlog · 22 Maggio 2024

Adding to Saudi Arabia’s recent momentum in the commercial aviation arena, British Airways has announced it will be making a return to Jeddah in the Kingdom in the autumn of 2024. The carrier will operate from the carrier’s main hub at London-Heathrow Airport (LHR) and will serve the second-most populous city in the Middle Eastern state with a four-times-per-week service operated by Boeing 787s.

The announcement of the route re-launch came following the ‘Great Futures Expo’ event held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia between May 14 and 15, 2024, and is the latest of big-ticket aviation announcements from the Kingdom in recent weeks, none more so than the recent order for 105 Airbus A320neo family aircraft from the Saudia Group placed on May 20, 2024.

“We have a long history of connecting families, friends, and businesses in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with our home in London,” said Colm Lacy, British Airways’ Chief Commercial Officer. “There are significant opportunities for businesses in both countries, so we’re pleased we can re-build our connectivity and strengthen links between the two kingdoms.”  

Already open for reservations, the new route between Heathrow and Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport (JED) commences on November 4, 2024, and will operate year-round. The new flights complement the carrier’s other service to Saudi Arabia from London, which serves the country’s capital city Riyadh (RUH) on a daily basis. All services operate from Heathrow’s Terminal 5.

The new service will operate to the following schedule (subject to airport slot availability). The outbound flight from London will leave Heathrow at 20:10 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, arriving in Jeddah at 05:30 the following morning. The return journey departs Jeddah at 07:55 arriving back in London at 11:45 the same day.

The reinstatement of flights to Jeddah brings the British Airways network in the Gulf region to eight destinations – Riyadh, Jeddah, Kuwait City (KWI), Muscat (MCT), Bahrain (BAH), Doha (DOH), Dubai (DXB), and Abu Dhabi (AUH), with the last of these added as recently as April 2024.

For the summer of 2024, the carrier will operate to over 65 countries, including routes with its partner airlines. The airline offers flights to more destinations from London than any other carrier and this summer will operate from four of London’s major airports – Heathrow, Gatwick (LGW), City Airport (LCY), and Stansted (STN).