BA's Gatwick-Colombo service will take off on 23 October operating three times a week, providing direct connectivity to Sri Lanka's capital during the winter season.
The airline will also launch daily Heathrow-Melbourne services from 9 January 2027, via Kuala Lumpur, marking its return to Australia's second city and tapping into demand for major events such as the Australian Open and the Melbourne Formula One Grand Prix.
Elsewhere, the carrier is boosting frequencies across its network, including a third daily Heathrow-Cape Town service from December and double-daily flights to Tokyo's Haneda airport from the end of March, continuing through winter.
In the Caribbean, a new daily Gatwick–Barbados service will launch on 25 October, complementing existing Heathrow flights and operating with onward connections to Grenada, Guyana and Tobago.
Saint Lucia will move to a standalone daily service, while Kingston (Jamaica) and Punta Cana (Dominican Republic) will both increase to four-times-weekly departures.
The new Gatwick–Barbados service offers onward connections to Guyana, Tobago and Grenada, pictured (Credit: iStock/Orietta Gaspari)
In addition, BA's route to San Jose in Costa Rica will increase to five weekly flights and switch from Gatwick to Heathrow, while in the US, New Orleans flights increase to four weekly, Baltimore becomes daily and Houston rises to 12 a week.
Neil Chernoff, BA's chief planning and strategy officer, said the changes represented a "significant investment" in the airline’s leisure network.
"We’re delighted to announce sizeable growth to our flying schedule for winter 2026, including two notable new destinations that I’m confident will prove popular with our customers," he said.
'This will grow the whole market'
Jean-Marc Flambert, founder and managing director of hotel group Secrets of Ceylon, welcomed the move by British Airways. Flambert is a former UK director of the Sri Lanka Tourist Board, and has worked for Antigua & Barbuda and Saint Lucia's tourist boards.
"I'm confident this will grow the whole market," he told TTG. "Sri Lanka is very popular with UK travellers and it adds to the daily flights offered by Sri Lankan Airlines."
Louis Lewis, chief executive of the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority, welcomed the news, which will be complemented by an increase in accommodation capacity – including new resorts and renovated rooms – from the end of the year.
"The UK remains our second biggest source market and we thank British Airways for such a productive partnership and look forward to welcoming more passengers from the UK," he added.
The news comes as the airline ramps up its short-term capacity in response to the Middle East crisis, with the shift also driving a spike in holiday searches via British Airways Holidays.
Searches for Caribbean destinations including Antigua (+63%) and Barbados (+46%) have seen strong growth, alongside Indian Ocean hotspots such as the Maldives, which is up by nearly a third (32%) and Mauritius, which has seen a 42% spike.
Closer to home, Tenerife (+38%) and Gran Canaria (+50%) are also trending upwards, as agents raise concerns over price hikes in the western Mediterranean as a result of the conflict.
