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EXCLUSIVE: British Airways cancels return to Kuala Lumpur with four weeks notice

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British Airways was due to restart two routes to Asia this winter – Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.

Bangkok is going ahead, with flights starting on 28th October.

Kuala Lumpur, which was due to launch on 10th November, seems to have hit the buffers.

EDIT: Whilst a few days old, we are keeping this article pinned to the top of the home page because of the amount of discussion in the comments about BA’s ‘issues’ over rerouting passengers.

British Airways drops Kuala Lumpur flights

Earlier this afternoon the flights were showing as bookable:

British Airways drops Kuala Lumpur flights

…. but five minutes ago it changed to this:

British Airways drops Kuala Lumpur flights

No flights are available until 1st April 2025.

Cancelling a route with less than a months notice is clearly not great news for anyone. However, with oneworld partner Malaysia Airlines offering double-daily flights from Heathrow, it should be possible to get most people on a same-day alternative.

Our 2022 review of the Malaysia Airlines service in business class is here.

Qatar Airways is also likely to be an option due to BA’s joint venture agreement. In fact, it is possible that BA tries to push Qatar Airways as its preferred alternative.

Note that it will take BA a few days to hammer out a formal rebooking arrangement with Malaysian. If you call today you will be offered an indirect alternative.

Why have the flights been pulled?

British Airways told us:

We’re disappointed that we’ve had such to make further changes to our schedule as we continue to experience delays to the delivery of engines and parts from Rolls-Royce – particularly in relation to the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines fitted to our 787 aircraft.

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. We’ve apologised to those affected and are able to offer the vast majority a flight the same day with British Airways or one of our partner airlines. 

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.

In terms of ‘why KL?’, competition is probably part of it. Malaysia Airlines offers a decent product on the route which also allows flyers to earn Avios and British Airways Executive Club tier points.

BA’s shortage of A380 aircraft is also likely to be a factor. As we have covered, the fleet is proving very unreliable.

Kuala Lumpur was scheduled as a daily service on a Boeing 787-9, which was a heavy commitment in terms of aircraft. Pulling what was always going to be a low yield route is a relatively low cost way of building some resilience in the schedule.

Let’s hope the 1st April 2025 date is firm.

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Comments (644)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Richard M says:
    11 Oct11 October 17:55

    Might be down to events in the Middle East and ongoing/future airspace restrictions..

    • Aston100 says:
      11 Oct11 October 18:18

      Do you reckon Israel will invade south east asia?

      • meta says:
        11 Oct11 October 18:55

        No, but if Iran is in the war then that limits severely where the airlines can fly (feasibility) and South East Asia will be affected. Can’t fly over Israel, Syria, Iran, Yemen… The only option since Russian Airspace is closed, is down via Africa and then Indian Ocean, but that’s probably not feasible both commercially and due to safety.

        • Mark says:
          11 Oct11 October 19:16

          Over Afghanistan is the preferred outbound route to SE Asia these days, and recently for flights back as well, avoiding Iraq where short notice airspace closures due to Iran’s missile attack were problematic a couple of weeks ago. Considering that BA wouldn’t have flown over any of the countries you list anyway and route they are flying isn’t much longer than what would have been planned when the route was relaunched, I doubt it’s a significant factor.

    • Tim says:
      11 Oct11 October 19:42

      It’s definitely shortage of 787s. Not a BA only problem and not one being solved by Rolls Royce very quickly

  • marks7389 says:
    11 Oct11 October 17:58

    I have to say I’m not massively surprised. We’re booked to fly to KL on 21st March and I was half expecting this, given the pressures on the long haul fleet, the 787s in particular and the alternate One World options with Malaysian and Qatar.

  • Phloxygen says:
    11 Oct11 October 18:08

    Had booked to KL for 22nd March. Have just called the UK number and spoken to an agent in India who has told me that they can only reroute LON-SIN (BA) SIN-KUL (MH). When I asked to be booked on the Malaysian Airlines flight, they told me that this option is only offered when the flight is cancelled within 24 hours of departure.

    Said I’d consider my options and hung-up without rebooking. Interested if anyone can enlighten me as to whether this is worth fighting?

  • Kuestrian says:
    11 Oct11 October 18:09

    No email but the BA app tells me my flights are cancelled and offer to rebook the same route, but of course there isn’t any availability.

    Are we all meant to ring up BA CS?

    • Waistman says:
      11 Oct11 October 18:28

      Rang up and they could only offer indirect and said they couldn’t do MAS

  • Sonny says:
    11 Oct11 October 18:12

    Weird timing, I was just looking and about to book flights for July!

    Is this cancelling _all_ flights or just the winter ones? I still see Avios availability for summer ‘25

  • John says:
    11 Oct11 October 18:16

    I’m glad I’m already booked onto Qatar and wasn’t waiting for BA!

  • Mark says:
    11 Oct11 October 18:17

    Cancelled Barbados on a number of days from around 10th nov also today.

    • Robak says:
      11 Oct11 October 20:10

      What? . I have a flight to barbados on 15th november and for now all its ok

    • Tk says:
      12 Oct12 October 01:51

      We had Mumbai return cancelled today too. Seems like it is going down from 3 times a day to twice a day. Fine for us to rebook onto another service the same day.

  • Aston100 says:
    11 Oct11 October 18:17

    My flight is in summer 2025.
    I have not had an email.
    The flight looks fine on MMB.
    So I guess the summer schedule is still in place.

    My summer flight to KUL is the ‘inbound’ on a 2 for 1, with the ‘outbound’ being from Tokyo to London in Easter a few months earlier.
    Anyone know if I can make a free change to the Tokyo flight if they eventually decide to cancel my summer flight to KUL?

    • meta says:
      11 Oct11 October 18:58

      I believe not as +/- 300 miles allowed only normally. No harm in asking.

    • Mark says:
      11 Oct11 October 19:25

      You would probably be able to cancel the whole booking free of charge. Doubt you’d be allowed to make a change to the “outbound” though.

      • BJ says:
        11 Oct11 October 19:58

        If they are on the same PNR Aston may change the Tokyo flight subject to award seat availabiliy, change (by necessity) the KUL sector, or cancel the whole thing as you suggest. However, no harm in trying his luck as meta suggests. If they are on different PNR as I suspect then they function as independent reservations even uf linked tgfough application of 2-4-1 voucher and each can be changed ir cancelked indeoebdently of the other. Changes of the KUL sector from an award basis to a revenue flight then puts that flight under revenue rules until/if it us suvsequentky changed back to an award flight in which case it reverts to award rules. Before anybody has any ‘bright ideas’ if you cancel award flights which have subsequently become subject to revenue rules you stillnonly get vack what you paid for it, i.e. the combination of cash and avios used.

        • Polly says:
          13 Oct13 October 18:33

          Hi BJ and Aston100. We are the same situation as you Aston100. Out to SIN, next Friday BA 11, but back from KUL late November, now cancelled. As KUL was added on afterwards, unfortunately we have 2 x PNR’s. Was hoping for a complete transfer of booking to Feb, as we have to cancel next week anyway. Due to OH op.
          Nice chap on the phone yesterday thought it just might be possible, once they work out agreements with QR/ MAS. He did mention the 14 days + or – tho.
          Will try again Tuesday or Wednesday as not as urgent as some of you with your Christmas plans disrupted.

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