British Airways to suspend Abu Dhabi flights amid ongoing B787 engine issues   

The next route to join British Airways’ growing list of canceled flights in 2025 is London-Heathrow Airport (LHR) to Abu Dhabi (AUH). The route, operated by the carrier’s Boeing 787 fleet was only relaunched in April 2024, yet the service has become the latest casualty of the airline’s ongoing issues concerning delays to the delivery of Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines and parts that power its fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

According to an airline statement issued on December 18, 2024, the 3,432-mile (5,491km) route will be suspended by the carrier from March to October 2025, citing the ongoing issues it is facing with Rolls-Royce powerplants.

“We are 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,” said a British Airways spokesperson. “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.”

GCmap.comThe carrier has advised the thousands of passengers affected by this latest decision that they have the option of either flying to Doha or Dubai on the airline’s other services to the region or departing from London-Gatwick Airport (LGW) instead.

“We have apologized to those affected and can offer the vast majority a flight the same day with British Airways or one of our partner airlines,” the spokesperson added. “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 reassurance of a prompt and reliable solution.”

The ongoing issues the carrier is facing with Rolls-Royce have wreaked havoc across the airline’s summer 2025 flying program. So far, the carrier has axed flights from Gatwick to New York-JFK Airport (JFK), plus Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur (KUL), Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), Miami (MIA) and Kuwait (KWI). Elsewhere on the airline’s long-haul network,  services to Hong Kong (HKG) have been cut back and those to Beijing (PEK) have been axed for “economic reasons.”

Heather Dunbar / ShutterstockAdditionally, in late November 2024, in an apparent U-turn from a previous decision announced in early November 2024, British Airways revealed that its flights between London-Heathrow and Bahrain (BAH) will continue throughout 2025 after all. The route had been earmarked for suspension after March 2025 because of the continuing issue with the Trent 1000 engines. Rolls-Royce has said that it has set up a task force to deal with the ongoing problems as a matter of urgency.  

These problems are not just limited to British Airways. Air New Zealand for example, has four of its 14 Boeing 787-9s grounded at present for issues related to their Trent engines, although one is also undergoing refurbishment in Singapore at the current time.    

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