British Airways cuts European routes for summer 2026, most of them to Germany

12 Nov 2025 CGN

British Airways will scale back its European network next summer, dropping four routes from London as part of its 2026 schedule adjustment. The airline confirmed that flights will end effective March 29, 2026, on the following services:

London City–Frankfurt (10 weekly, operated by BA CityFlyer)
London Heathrow–Cologne (12 weekly)
London Heathrow–Riga (4 weekly)
London Heathrow–Stuttgart (14 weekly)

Half of these routes only resumed in 2023 after long absences. However, British Airways considers them as not commercially viable compared to possible alternative uses for aircraft and Heathrow slots. The carrier has not disclosed how the released capacity will be reallocated, though the launch of the new Heathrow–St. Louis service next year could absorb some of the resources.

The Cologne route, revived in 2023, will again be discontinued as BA consolidates its German operations in the Ruhr/Rhine area in Düsseldorf. The airline currently operates 33 weekly flights between Heathrow and Düsseldorf, where it is the largest airline to London. By contrast, Cologne was served less frequently and faced strong competition from Eurowings, which operates twice as many flights. As an economic powerhouse, Düsseldorf generally commands higher fares, despite higher airport charges, making it a more profitable market. BA CityFlyer however already dropped its London City–Düsseldorf route in 2024.

London City-Frankfurt and London Heathrow-Cologne/Bonn will meanwhile continue to be served by Air Dolomiti (Lufthansa) for LCY-Frankfurt and by Eurowings for both LHR-Cologne and LHR-Stuttgart. Eurowings has 14 weekly frequencies to Cologne and 18 weekly frequencies to Stuttgart.

When BA exits, Eurowings will then be the only airline connecting Stuttgart and London. The cut is notable for another strong economic centre in Germany. The London-Stuttgart air link records nearly 250,000 round-trip passengers per year. However, Stuttgart is plagued -like most German airports- by high operating costs.

As an example, Delta Air Lines pulled out from its flights to Atlanta at the end of 2024. While Air France recently announced to stop flying its two daily frequencies from Paris CDG to Stuttgart at the end of March.