British Airways will resume operations to Melbourne and Colombo during the Northern Winter schedule – marking its return after a long hiatus – as part of a wider long-haul network expansion.

The Oneworld operator will begin flying to Melbourne from 9 January 2027, with daily flights operated by Boeing 787-9s. The service will be via Kuala Lumpur, which BA already serves.

Melbourne will be BA’s second Australian point after Sydney, which it flies to via Singapore. It comes about 20 years since the carrier last operated to Melbourne.

BA will commence direct flights to Colombo from 23 October, operating the service three times weekly. The airline briefly operated to the Sri Lankan capital in the 2010s, ultimately suspending operations in 2015.

The two network additions come as the airline targets a 9% year-on-year capacity increase in its long-haul network during the 2026 winter schedule.

From 25 October, BA is also ramping up the number of flights from London to cities such as Cape Town, Tokyo Haneda, Bridgetown in Barbados, New Orleans and Houston, as well as San Jose in Costa Rica.

The airline also confirms it has boosted its frequencies between London and Bangkok, as well as Singapore, in recent weeks, amid a surge of demand following the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which has disrupted air travel through the region’s mega-hubs.

BA says it has added more than 3,300 extra seats – through the introduction of seven additional flights – between 10 and 19 March.

“[BA] continues to monitor its network closely to make adjustments based on where customers want to fly,” the carrier states.