A surprising route development has just emerged: British Airways will temporarily suspend service to Dallas, Texas, in the Summer of 2025. Why will this be the case?

Surprising Suspension

British Airways operates an impressive route network to the United States from its hub in London Heathrow (LHR) with additional Gatwick (LGW) flights.

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) has been a long-time destination for the carrier. This is primarily thanks to it being the largest hub for American Airlines, British Airways' OneWorld and trans-Atlantic joint venture partner.

American's large network from Dallas is a feeder source for British Airways flights from DFW, in addition to the large local customer base.

That said, there is a lot of connectivity in Dallas and British Airways even flew its largest aircraft, the Airbus A380, on the London - Dallas route for a significant period. It was only earlier in October that the carrier pulled out the A380 and replaced it with the Boeing 777-300ER.

Currently, there are four daily flights between Dallas and London. Three days during the week five flights operate between the two cities thanks to Americans operating an extra flight, AA80 and AA81.

The current Winter '24-25 schedule sees American Airlines operating four daily flights on the route with British Airways keeping its daily BA193/192 service until the end of March.

Effective March 30th, 2025, British Airways will suspend its flight to DFW and transfer that slot to American Airlines. Therefore, American will add a fifth-daily flight to London that will operate at the same timings that the British Airways flights previously did.

As of now, this change will only be in effect for the Summer 2025 season which runs from March 30th to October 26th, 2025.

Why is this happening?

British Airways is one of many airlines that have continuously faced issues related to the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines powering their Boeing 787 fleets. 

The carrier continues to face delays in the delivery of new engines and parts from Rolls-Royce. This has prompted British Airways to make further changes to its schedule.

But British Airways doesn't fly the 787 to Dallas so why does this matter? The carrier operates a larger schedule during the busy winter and summer period with additional flights to other destinations around the world being added.

As such, the airline is facing an aircraft shortage with various Dreamliners grounded due to engine supply chain issues. To maintain its winter schedule as best as possible, British Airways will reallocate other aircraft to certain routes and outsource various routes to partner airlines.

Dallas being an American Airlines hub is the perfect opportunity for British Airways to temporarily cede its daily flight slot to American. This way, the aircraft that would normally operate the Dallas flights can be assigned elsewhere.

American Airlines itself has long claimed to be experiencing a widebody aircraft shortage hence its rather (and comparatively) small long-haul network. However, it appears that the airline feels that it has the resources to add another flight between Dallas and London.

Like American's current daily flights between DFW-LHR, the new extra frequency being added will also be flown by a Boeing 777-300ER. Currently, American operates two daily flights with the 777-300ER, one with the 787-9, and three times a week with the 777-200ER.