This week’s long-haul flight schedule changes from Europe: What you need to know
October 25, 2025
On Sunday 26 October, the aviation winter season begins. Lasting until 28 March next year, the winter season is characterised by changing demand patterns in different markets.
Generally, flights from Europe and North America towards the southern hemisphere peak during the winter season. Transatlantic flights between Europe and North America are sometimes reduced slightly in favour of southbound services.
But while winter 2025-2026 is around the corner, airline network planners are already thinking about summer and winter next year.
This week’s schedule update for long-haul flights out of Europe, shows adjustments on Latin America markets, exemplified by World2Fly’s announcement of a new Madrid (Spain) to Cartagena (Columbia) flight from July. Other updates around that area include Air France’s additional services to destinations in Brazil.
The North Atlantic remained relevant, with Air Canada filing its fifth Airbus A321XLR route to Porto. Meanwhile in Asia, some of the key changes include Biman Bangladesh’s expansion, with a London Heathrow-Dhaka terminator service that will fly once a week from November. This will complement existing flights on that route via Sylhet.
Finally, in Africa, Kenya Airways has filed reasonably significant increases to its services to Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam , hubs of its SkyTeam partners and minority stakeholders Air France and KLM. Elsewhere, Etihad Airways has scheduled double daily flights to Geneva from April up from just 7 weekly last year.
Europe’s main long-haul flight schedule changes this week
Using data from aviation analytics firm Cirium, the below is a non-exhaustive list of developments this week. The sample was selected based on relevance and market trends, and does not include smaller changes such as minor aircraft changes with a limited impact on capacity. As always, schedules are subject to change. You can also read last week’s article here.
North Atlantic
- JetBlue brings forward seasonal Boston to Edinburgh and Madrid flights, now resuming on 16 April. This year, they began on 22 May. Flights will terminate earlier though, on 26 September instead of 24 October.
- JetBlue will delay the resumption of its New York-JFK to Dublin flights to 29 April instead of 1 April as initially planned.
- American Airlines reduces London Heathrow to New York-JFK from four daily to three daily flights from April 2026.
- Delta Air Lines will reduce New York-JFK to Milan Malpensa from 12 to 11 weekly flights from May 2026 for the peak summer season.
- Air Canada increases Montreal to Porto flights to five weekly as the Airbus A330 is replaced with the lower-capacity A321XLR. This will take effect from July 2026.
- TUI Belgium has filed the resumption of its long-haul operations from next month with flights to Cancun and Punta Cana set to continue from its Brussels hub. This comes after it withdrew its final 787 earlier this year. These flights are expected to operate with a TUI Netherlands-registered Dreamliner. Originally, the long-haul network was meant to be suspended this weekend.
- Corendon has adjusted its Airbus A350 operation and its triangular flights connecting Amsterdam (AMS), Curaçao (CUR) and Bonaire (BON). From April 2026, an AMS-BON-CUR-AMS flight will operate, instead of the current AMS-CUR-BON-AMS operation. It will also continue the existing terminator AMS-CUR-AMS flight.
South Atlantic
- World2Fly announces a new nonstop flight between Madrid and Cartagena from 3 July 2026. Flights will operate once a week with an Airbus A350.
- Air France is increasing flights to Rio de Janeiro and Lima in July and August from daily to 10x weekly. Fortaleza will also increase during this period from three to four weekly flights.
Asia
- IndiGo has filed its long-awaited Airbus A321XLR services to Athens. It will deploy the type on three weekly flights each from Mumbai and Delhi as of January 2026.
- Biman Bangladesh will be introducing a nonstop terminator flight between London Heathrow and Dhaka, once a week with a Boeing 787, from 13 November 2025. This will complement four weekly services connecting Dhaka with the English capital via Sylhet.
- Hainan Airlines has upped its planned London Heathrow to Haikou flight from one to two weekly services from December till March. It is also increasing flights on its Chongqing to Madrid route from two to three weekly during the same period.
- Etihad is introducing double daily flights to Geneva from Abu Dhabi as of April 2026, up from daily during the same period last year.
- Xiamen Air is boosting service on its Amsterdam Schiphol to Xiamen Gaoqi route from three to four weekly from January.
- Juneyao Airlines will drop its Manchester to Shanghai route from daily to just three times per week from January. Hainan Airlines will fly this route daily with an A330 during the same period.
- China Airlines is reducing Rome to Taipei flights from three to two weekly from April 2026.
Africa
- Kenya Airways will be boosting flights between Nairobi and Paris Charles de Gaulle. The route will operate daily from November until March, increasing thereafter to nine weekly from April. Its Nairobi to Amsterdam Schiphol flights will also reach that frequency from April.
American Airlines reduces London Heathrow service
British Airways had announced earlier this year that it would be expanding its London Heathrow to New York-JFK flights to nine daily. In total, when combining the flights operated by joint venture partner American Airlines, this would have brought the operation to record high levels. However, it seems American Airlines will be reducing its own London Heathrow operation, in turn neutralising the impact of the BA increase.
American will be reducing flights on the route from four to three daily as of April 2026. This will mean a total of 84 weekly flights will be offered by the two airlines, or 12 daily. It is not immediately clear what the reason behind the capacity decrease is.
World2Fly expands Spain-South America flights
World2Fly announced a brand new route from Madrid to Cartagena yesterday as part of its summer 2026 expansion. An Airbus A350 will serve the route once a week from 3 July 2026, and will be the first ever nonstop flight between the two cities since October 2005 with the now-defunct Air Madrid.
The company has marketed the route launch based on its convenience. “Forget about layovers and endless waits,” the company wrote on Friday. Avianca and Iberia are the primary operators on the sector, offering one-stop flights via cities like Bogotá.
Kenya Airways reinforces connections to European partner hubs
Kenya Airways will be reinforcing its connections to Paris and Amsterdam next summer. Air France and KLM offer connections to destinations in Europe,.
In July, Kenya Airways reinforced its collaboration with WestJet with an interline agreement. This allows one-stop connections via Paris, Amsterdam, London (Gatwick), London (Heathrow) and New York (JFK) to destinations in Canada, or Nairobi.
The agreement with Delta covers onward connections from New York-JFK, so the increased flying in Europe won’t further connections to the United States.
Featured image: REC and ROLL | Adobe Stock
