British Airways Reduces Flights To Delhi As Impact Of 787 Dreamliner Rolls-Royce Engines Issue Grows

British Airways’ schedules showed that the carrier has planned not to add additional itineraries on flights from London, the United Kingdom, to Delhi, India, as issues with the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000, powering its Boeing 787s, continue to affect the airline’s schedules in 2025.

Maintaining the status quo

Data from the aviation analytics company Cirium showed that the latest British Airways schedules indicated a reduction in planned flights from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) to Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) in 2025.

Instead of the planned three daily flights, British Airways will resume serving the route with a twice-daily service between the two cities.

The changes will affect the airline’s planned flights between April 2025 and October 2025. During the same period in 2024, the British carrier had scheduled 14 weekly flights on the route.

Between April 2025 and October 2025, British Airways planned to utilize the Boeing 787-8 on flights from London to Delhi.

During the winter season, namely between October and March 2025, the British airline has deployed the Airbus A350-1000, 777-200ER, 787-8, and 787-9 to fly from London-Heathrow to Delhi.

Foiling previous plans

On June 5, British Airways announced that it would be adding a new daily flight from London to Delhi starting April 20, 2025, adding seven weekly itineraries to a schedule of 56 weekly flights to India.

This included three daily flights to Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM) and daily flights to Chennai International Airport (MAA), Bengaluru Kempegowda International Airport (BLR), and Hyderabad Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (HYD) each.

For the time being, the airline’s current schedules showed no reductions on flights to other Indian destinations.

At the time, Neil Chernoff, the chief planning and strategy officer of British Airways, said that this was a milestone year for the airline as it was celebrating 100 years of flying to India.

“I’m delighted to announce the addition of a third daily flight from the vibrant capital city of India, Delhi offering convenient travel choices from India to London Heathrow, and to our extensive worldwide network of more than 200 destinations.”

Issues with Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines

The cuts to its planned flights come as British Airways has struggled with the Trent 1000 engine powering its 787s, namely with supply issues from Rolls-Royce.

This included canceling planned flights to Bahrain International Airport (BAH) and Kuwait International Airport (KWI), suspending flights from London Gatwick Airport (LGW) to New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) until March 2025, and delaying the start of services to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL) by a few months.

The supply issues also led to the carrier abandoning flights to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) – potentially for the summer season of 2025 only – and cutting back on its plans to operate two daily flights to Miami International Airport (MIA).

When Simple Flying approached British Airways for a comment regarding the planned changes on flights to Dallas, the company’s spokesperson explained that,

“We’re 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 – particularly in relation to the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines fitted to our 787 aircraft.”

The British Airways representative added that the airline wanted to provide its customers certainty for their travel plans, with the airline continuously working with Rolls-Royce to have clarity about any potential solutions.

The latest Cirium data showed that between March 2025 and October 2025, the airline, on average, has reduced the number of flights with widebody aircraft by 35.5 per week in its latest schedule update. However, year-on-year (YoY), British Airways would still increase its weekly twin-aisle flight schedule with an average of 6.8 departures during the period.