British Airways has announced it will launch direct flights between Heathrow and Dammam in Saudi Arabia from 1 December.
The route will offer the only direct flight to the global business hub, with flights to be offered on a daily basis with a stop in Bahrain.
Flights will depart Heathrow at 1130 and lands in Dammam at 2245 local time. The return service leaves at 0030, arriving in London at 0640 local time.
The year-round service will be operated by a four-class Boeing 777-20o, departing from Terminal 5 and landing into Dammam’s King Fahd International airport.
Dammam is known as the “heart” of the petroleum industry and is a popular hub for business travel. It will be BA’s third destination in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh and Jeddah.
Moran Birger, head of sales for the Middle East and Asia Pacific, commented: “Our customers are currently offered a limo service between Bahrain and Dammam, but the direct service will now enable seamless travel in eight hours from our home at Heathrow. More than half of Saudi Arabia’s oil and gas is produced in this region, so this new link underlines the importance of the Eastern province of the Kingdom and the need for smooth onward connections to Europe and the United States.”
Dammam is one of five long-haul routes BA is launching in 2019, with non-stop flights to Pittsburgh and Charleston in the US, Osaka in Japan and Islamabad in Pakistan starting this year, alongside several new short-haul destinations.
ba.com