AirAsia X drops Bahrain-London Gatwick launch before inaugural flight

AirAsia X has axed plans to launch flights between Kuala Lumpur and London Gatwick via Bahrain.

AirAsia X cancels London launch

The Malaysian long-haul low-cost carrier had been eyeing a return to the UK market and hoped to use Bahrain as the stopover point, with the Gulf state acting as the airline’s first hub outside Asia.

However the airline removed the service from its schedules before the inaugural flight was due to operate, with bookings no longer available through its reservation system. No revised launch date has been given and it is not clear if the route will make a comeback.

The route had been scheduled to begin on 27 August, operating four times a week before increasing to daily flights from the start of November.

The launch had been delayed to August due to the conflict in the Middle East, having been pushed back from an initial start date in June. 

In June, the airline was reported to have paused the launch of services between Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Bahrain International Airport and London Gatwick, owing to the fallout from the war in the Middle East. 

But in an update on its recovery that same month, AirAsia said it was “executing its planned growth strategy with full operational focus”, naming new destinations including Busan, Bahrain, London and Batam.

The withdrawal will come as a disappointment for both the airline and the participating airports. AirAsia X unveiled the route with considerable fanfare earlier this year, describing Bahrain as the centrepiece of its strategy to connect Southeast Asia with the Middle East and Europe.

Bahrain was central to long-haul growth strategy

When the service was announced in February, AirAsia X said Bahrain would become its first international hub, enabling it to expand beyond its traditional Asia-Pacific network while tapping into growing demand for lower-cost long-haul travel.

The planned Kuala Lumpur-Bahrain-London Gatwick operation was designed to combine traffic from Southeast Asia with passengers travelling to and from the Gulf and Europe, while also creating opportunities for fifth-freedom operations on the Bahrain-London sector.

The Bahrain-Gatwick leg would have been only the airline’s second fifth-freedom route, allowing it to carry passengers solely between Bahrain and the UK in addition to connecting travellers originating in Kuala Lumpur and elsewhere across the AirAsia network.

At the time of the announcement, Capital A chief executive Tony Fernandes described the project as an important stage in AirAsia X’s international expansion,.

The carrier also highlighted wider commercial opportunities beyond passenger operations, including air cargo and maintenance services, while Bahraini government officials said the investment would boost tourism and employment in the kingdom.

Ambitious plans included rapid frequency growth

AirAsia X had intended to deploy Airbus A330-300 aircraft on the route, initially operating four weekly services before expanding to daily flights little more than two months after launch.

The service would also have marked AirAsia X’s return to the London market after previous attempts to operate long-haul low-cost services to the UK ended more than a decade ago.

The airline had promoted the route as providing low-cost connections between London and almost 100 destinations across Asia through its Kuala Lumpur hub, targeting both point-to-point travellers and connecting passengers from markets including Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan and Sri Lanka.

Introductory promotional fares had gone on sale shortly after the route announcement, with one-way tickets from Kuala Lumpur to Bahrain and London offered at heavily discounted prices during the launch campaign.

No explanation for cancellation

AirAsia X has not publicly explained why the route has been withdrawn, and it remains unclear whether the project has been postponed indefinitely or cancelled outright.

The removal comes before any commercial flights had operated and means the airline will, for now, remain absent from the UK market.

The decision also raises questions over the future of Bahrain’s role in AirAsia X’s long-term network strategy. 

The carrier had presented the kingdom as a gateway linking Southeast Asia, the Gulf, and Europe, with ambitions to build a broader hub-and-spoke operation.

Whether those plans are simply delayed or fundamentally reassessed remains to be seen.