British Airways is to axe its direct flights between London Heathrow and Beijing.

The UK national carrier announced that the service to the Chinese capital would end on 26 October.

Although BA did not give reasons for its suspension of the route, flights to Asia from Europe have become increasingly costly and time-consuming since the war in Ukraine meant western airlines had to avoid Russian airspace.

The move comes little more than a year after BA had restored the route, in June 2023, after a three-year hiatus due to travel restrictions during the Covid pandemic. Last year, it described the Beijing service as “one of our most important routes”.

BA will suspend flights until at least November 2025, although it will keep the schedule under review.

A British Airways spokesperson said: “We will be pausing our route to Beijing from 26 October, and we’re contacting any affected customers with rebooking options or to offer them a full refund.

“We continue to operate daily flights to Shanghai and Hong Kong.”

Flight times to China for western airlines avoiding Russian airspace are now considerably longer, meaning added fuel and complications for deploying crew, adding to costs. Chinese carriers flying to London can fly direct across Russia, giving them a significant competitive advantage.

Virgin Atlantic recently also decided it could no longer operate to Shanghai, on similar grounds, closing its only Chinese route from the autumn after restarting last year.

The number of foreign tourists visiting China is also yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.

Business travel website Head for Points, which first reported BA’s decision to suspend the route, said: “Why bother when you can send the same plane to the US instead, where demand for premium cabins remains sky-high?”

BA has struggled in the past to make Chinese business routes work; a much-heralded route to Chengdu from Heathrow was quietly scrapped in 2016.