British Airways’ decision to halt flights to two Gulf countries has angered politicians in the UK, but people in Bahrain are fighting back with a petition they hope will stop it from happening.
By the end of the first quarter of 2025, the UK airline plans to pull daily flights to Bahrain and Kuwait from its schedule, as it says these routes are no longer commercially viable, due to Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine issues on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet.
In an official statement seen by The National, British Airways said it was “disappointed” to make this decision, but “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”.
When asked whether they will reinstate the routes once the engine issues are resolved, there was no response.
Long-standing ties
Stanley Szecowka, managing editor of Bahrain’s national newspaper Gulf Daily News, is now trying to reverse the decision. He has started a petition on change.org, calling on readers and residents to help convince BA chairman and chief executive Sean Doyle to keep the direct route between London and Bahrain. So far, more than 2,000 people have signed it since it launched on Sunday.
“British Airways has got such a long-standing, historic relationship dealing with Bahrain from the very, very earliest days you can imagine of aviation,” he told The National.
“I was looking through our [newspaper] archives and we've got stories of British Airways flights, cabin crew and pilots that have been very much part of the Bahrain community.
“Dame Shirley Bassey once flew from the UK on Concorde to Bahrain and flew back to do another performance at Royal Albert Hall on the same day. There’s so much nostalgia.”
Popular route
The move does not make financial sense because the route is very popular in Bahrain, added Mr Szecowka.
“We have gold card BA members who have been travelling on the airline for 46 years, every year, and said they’ve never seen an empty flight,” he said. “When I go home [to the UK], as I go back once a year to see family, half the people in the queue are American serviceman getting the next flight on to the US.”
Long-time Bahrain resident Helen McKee has flown British Airways for more than 20 years to go back home to Belfast.
“This decision really will affect us,” she told The National. “My mum is coming for Christmas, and a few times a year, and we generally find the connections and prices are better from Belfast or Dublin.”
Now, Ms McKee and her family will have to take flights with more than one connection or travel on Gulf Air, Bahrain’s national airline, to England before getting another airline such as Aer Lingus for the last leg of the journey.
“I tried to book an Aer Lingus flight through Gulf Air once and it was like 1,000 Bahraini dinars [$2,660].”
This is why, so far, the petition has had a good response, said Mr Szecowka. “It got 1,000 signatures within 24 hours and we’re over 2,000 now … If we go a little way with this campaign, we can do something positive.”
British-Bahraini relations
This latest move follows other significant changes to British Airways’ network in recent months, but British politicians have said its decision to scrap the Bahrain and Kuwait routes is “madness”.
Dr Liam Fox, who served as defence secretary under former British prime minister David Cameron, told the Daily Mail that it would send “totally the wrong message”.
“At a time when the Gulf is becoming much more important geopolitically and we are attempting to negotiate new trade agreements in the region, this would be a blow to UK PLC,” he said. “It’s the worst possible decision at the worst possible time.”
Bahrain's King Hamad is currently in the UK and was hosted by King Charles III at Windsor Castle on Monday afternoon as the Gulf monarch marks his silver jubilee year.
Bahrain was a British protectorate for more than 100 years, gaining independence in 1971, and the two nations have maintained close ties, particularly in business. The island kingdom also hosts the only Royal Navy base in the region.
British Airways has been flying between Bahrain and London for 92 years. Imperial Airways, British Airways’ predecessor, flew to the island in 1932, with a transit flight from London to New Delhi, marking the company’s first entry into the Middle East.
On January 21, 1976, Concorde’s first commercial flight, BA300, was from London Heathrow to Bahrain International Airport.
The Bahrain Airport Company, the operating company of Bahrain International Airport, which this year has reached record highs for capacity, has said there was “no discussion” around the decision and it was “disappointed”, but hoped the airline’s position could be “reassessed”.
Mr Szecowka is hopeful his petition will make that case. “There’s a general feeling here that it’s unreal, so, providing the decision hasn’t been rubber-stamped by the British Airways parent company board of directors, then we may have a chance of enlightening them.”
