British Airways cancels all Maldives flights until 13th August

In an aggressive move, following the Maldives being placed on the UK Government ‘Red List’ of travel restrictions, British Airways appears to have cancelled all flights to Male until 13th August.

It was only back in February that BA decided to run a Summer service to the Maldives this year. This was initially for one flight per week, later upgraded to two.

ba.com will still sell you a flight to the Maldives, but this will be on Qatar Airways with an aircraft change in Doha. This is clearly risky, because you would need both Qatar and the Maldives to be removed from the ‘Red List’ if you were to avoid hotel quarantine on your return.

I would also expect that Iberia will now cancel its plans to launch Maldives services in July.

BA flights are currently scheduled to return at a low level from 13th August, with a full Winter season (five per week) due to operate from the timetable switch in late October.

This is the second time this week – coming on the back of the launch of multiple Greek routes for routes – that British Airways has placed a big bet on the timing of restrictions being lifted. With infection data now widely available and the criteria for restrictions being published, it may be that the airline feels it can make such moves with greater confidence.

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