British Airways Launches New 24-Hour Very Long Route In Only 5 Months [Map]

Published Aug 24, 2026, 7:00 AM EDT James lives and breathes route development. Educated in Air Transport Management at Loughborough University and Cranfield University, James has a PhD in airline strategy. James was Market Opportunity Analyst at London Luton Airport and Chief Analyst at anna.aero. He taught airline strategy and economics to undergraduate and postgraduate students for five years and has worked closely with multiple carriers on route and market intelligence projects. He is based near London, UK. They say that time flies. It often does in many ways, including for airline routes. For example, Air India will finally take off from Mumbai for Toronto in October, Finnair will begin flying to Australia in two months, and Qantas will launch scheduled service to Las Vegas at the end of the year. British Airways will introduce or resume multiple long-haul routes soon. They include from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) to Melbourne Airport (MEL) in January 2027, having last flown to Victoria 20 years ago. It is one of a growing number of carriers with service from Europe to MEL. BA From LHR To MEL In March 2026, the oneworld member confirmed that it would return to MEL at the start of 2027. The carrier will lift off from the UK's busiest airport on January 9, which is during the peak summer in Australia. Flights will stop in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL), with fifth freedom rights available. 20 years ago, flights stopped en route in Singapore. That's where BA's daily offering from LHR to Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (SYD) continues to stop. BA will serve MEL daily. The airline's submission to Cirium, an aviation analytics company, shows that both the 215-seat and 216-seat Boeing 787-9 are scheduled. While this might not seem significant, it is. Among other, more minor changes, the 216-seater has the carrier's older business class, while the 215-seater has the new offering. This may make a notable difference to what is, of course, a very long journey. Between January 9 and the end of July, the better option is scheduled on 115 of the 204 departures. The 215-seat version has eight seats in first class (1-2-1), 38 Club suites (1-2-1), 39 seats in World Traveller Plus (2-3-2; 38" pitch), and just 130 seats in World Traveller (3-3-3; 31"). Just over 21% of the capacity will be in first and business, which is a high proportion. However, the share of those two cabins has fallen from 23% with the 216-seater, which is due to fewer Club seats and fewer seats in World Traveller. Loading map… Drag to explore What Are BA's Times? The following table summarizes the route's schedule. The overnight flights to KUL and onward to MEL, and from KUL back to LHR, will help to increase sales of first class and business suites, which will be critical in this service's success. The arrival time back in the UK of 5:20 AM is nearly identical to SYD's arrival time (5:45 AM). This will help with onward connectivity via LHR, which will mainly be to other UK cities and to Ireland. Influenced by headwinds and avoiding Iranian and Russian airspace, the block time from MEL back to LHR will be 23 hours and 45 minutes. It will, of course, be BA's second-longest offering, behind SYD back to the UK's busiest airport (up to 24 hours and 25 minutes). BA's new offering will be among the quickest options between MEL and LHR. However, a few options will take less time. Focusing on January 2027, quicker trips include with SriLankan Airlines via Colombo (23 hours), Emirates via Dubai (23 hours and 5 minutes), Singapore Airlines via Changi (23 hours and 10 minutes), Etihad Airways via Abu Dhabi (23 hours and 20 minutes), and Qatar Airways via Doha (23 hours and 35 minutes). Of course, whether passengers want very little time on the ground in-between flights is debatable. In some cases, any delay may risk missing the onward journey. Frequency Leg Local Times* Daily LHR-KUL BA33: 9:10 PM-6:05 PM+1 Daily KUL-MEL BA33: 7:45 PM-6:40 AM+1 Daily MEL-KUL BA34: 4:35 PM-9:35 PM Daily KUL-LHR BA34: 11:15 PM-5:20 AM+1 * In January 2027 Traffic Between Europe & MEL Booking data for the 12 months to June 2026 suggests that approximately 1.3 million round-trip passengers traveled between Europe and MEL. Ignoring seasonality, more than 3,500 passengers traveled each day. Unsurprisingly, LHR was by far the most popular airport level market. Around 264,000 passengers traveled in the examined period (700+ daily). Due to the lack of one-stop, same-plane, same-flight-number services, nearly everyone flew indirectly en route. Obviously, most did so via the Gulf hubs of Dubai, Doha, and Abu Dhabi, along with the ever-popular Singapore. Transiting to another flight in Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK), Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Istanbul Airport (IST), Kuala Lumpur, and Shanghai Pudong was also important. These ten airports accounted for 90% of the market's sixth freedom traffic. A growing number of one-stop, same-plane, same-flight number options are available. Currently, there's Turkish Airlines from IST to MEL via Singapore; that route began in 2024. BA's return is upcoming, while Finnair will fly daily from Helsinki to MEL via BKK, starting on October 25. On February 1, 2027, later than previously planned, Qantas will reintroduce flights from MEL to LHR via Perth Airport (PER). Due to the war in Iran, the airline's PER to LHR service is stopping en route in Singapore rather than flying nonstop. Qantas hopes that nonstop flights will return in February 2027, but this is not guaranteed. Things are different from LHR. Due to tailwinds, Australia's flag carrier continues to fly nonstop back to PER. As such, from late October, passengers can continue on the same plane to MEL, but only in that direction.