British Airways Launches 54 Mile Flight To Saudi Arabia

By: Ben Schlappig

Published: March 19, 2019

25 comments

British Airways has today announced that they’re launching daily flights to Dammam, Saudi Arabia, as of December 1, 2019. This will be British Airways’ third destination in Saudi Arabia, after Jeddah and Riyadh.

Dammam, Saudi Arabia

While British Airways’ other services to Saudi Arabia are nonstop, the catch is that this flight won’t be. Rather it will operate as a one-stop service via Bahrain, so will be marketed as a “direct” flight. British Airways will use a 777-200 for the route, featuring first, business, premium economy, and economy.

British Airways operates several short flights with very big planes, but this is the shortest yet. This flight covers a distance of just 54 miles, making it British Airways’ shortest flight yet.

The flight will operate with the following schedule:

BA125 London to Bahrain departing 11:30AM arriving 8:55PM
BA125 Bahrain to Dammam departing 9:55PM arriving 10:45PM
BA124 Dammam to Bahrain departing 12:30AM arriving 1:10AM
BA124 Bahrain to London departing 2:20AM arriving 6:40AM

As you can see, currently the flight sits on the ground in Bahrain for several hours (in order to optimize connections), so I guess they figured they might as well operate continuing service to Dammam from there.

From London to Dammam, the gate-to-gate block time is 8hr15min eastbound and 9hr10min westbound. The flight between Bahrain and Dammam is blocked at 40-50 minutes.

Currently British Airways offers a limo service between Bahrain and Dammam, which apparently takes 2-3 hours on weekdays and 3-4 hours on weekends. Currently Gulf Air is the only airline to fly the route nonstop, so British Airways won’t even be the only airline to operate this short flight.

The previous shortest flight was British Airways’ service from Antigua to St. Kitts, also operated by a 777, covering a distance of 62 miles.

For those of you not familiar with Dammam, it’s the capital of the Eastern Province, and is the heart of the country’s petroleum industry.

British Airways isn’t the only European airline to fly to Dammam, as Lufthansa flies from Frankfurt via Kuwait City, and KLM flies nonstop from Amsterdam, with continuing service to Muscat. Interestingly KLM has fifth freedom rights while Lufthansa doesn’t.

What do you make of British Airways’ new service to Dammam?

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Alex Guest

March 25, 2019, 10:22 am

We used this flight living in Khobar. Customs and immigration are faster in the airports than on the causeway. We would go to Bahrain to stock up on pork products and carry them back in the ladies' toiletries bags, which were never opened by the male customs officers.

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Robert Diamond

March 20, 2019, 1:31 pm

My sister-in-law and her family live in Dammam, I'm surprised at this flight since they do the causeway drive to Bahrain very frequently.

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finalcalldxb Guest

March 20, 2019, 9:30 am

Until recently BA customers flew to Bahrain and then crossed the causeway into Saudi by car or bus. Recent visa changes have made this difficult on several visa categories which I suspect is a motivator for the new tag.

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Duca New Member

March 20, 2019, 6:29 am

Pan Am 025 DHA / JFK. I too remember that flight well. Leaving Dhahran at 2359 and landing JFK 0610 the following morning. 12 hours 10 min flight time. It was usually a party flight as oil workers and U.S expats headed home. Took it more times than I can remember. So sad of Pan Am's demise considering the pioneering routes they opened up across the Pacific, South America,and beyond. I took the DHA/BAH weekly. I smoked back then, but I could never finish a cigarette before the 'No smoking' sign pinged on before landing. They got me every time. Your right Rob - the booze did flow on PA 025 - for the entire flight..........and a few hangovers on arrival at JFK - Happy days...............!!

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Rob_Riyadh Guest

March 20, 2019, 2:43 am

I was also on the Dhahran to Bahrain Gulf Air flights 'back then'. That was before they opened the Causeway between Khobar and Bahrain and before they built the King Fahad International Airport in Dammam. Served by 737s, they would not even pressurize the cabin and we flew at a very low altitude. That was also when smoking was allowed aboard aircrafts and at times, it looked like we were in a flying smoking room. Dammam airport (King Fahad International Airport) is a bit of a white elephant. The only reason KLM flies to Dammam is because they won't allow them to fly to Riyadh. (As far as I know). Before KKIA (King Khalid International Airport) opened (very late 1982) only Saudia was allowed in Riyadh. They shared the old terminal with the Saudi Air Force. Many people would fly to the coast to catch their international flights. Flight PA/SV 025 (Riyadh to JFK) comes to mind. First leg RUH to DHA was on Saudia and second leg was on Pan Am. PA 025 used a special 747 for what was one of the longest flights at that time. Because the aircraft was Pan Am, it was a wet flight. At times, very wet... *

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