British Airways will deploy the Boeing 777-200ER from London Heathrow to Madrid. Taking effect on March 29, when it’ll switch to summer schedules based on IATA slot seasons, it’ll be the first time the carrier has used widebodies to Spain’s capital since 2022. BA will begin three additional routes from Heathrow next year, albeit not on the 777.

While fellow IAG airline Iberia will continue to use twin-aisle aircraft to Heathrow, BA’s resumption means they’ll be used less often than during the summer of 2025. Cirium Diio data shows that Iberia will fly the A330-200, A330-300, and A350-900 (I recently flew an A350 on the route). BA and Iberia primarily use larger aircraft to transport more freight to/from South America.

BA’s 777s To Madrid

Covering 672 nautical miles (1,245 km) each way, it will become the oneworld member’s sole European scheduled widebody operation. For now, at least, it’ll be a summer-only operation. The 777 will run daily from March 29 to October 25.

BA’s schedule submission to Cirium indicates that it plans 163 round-trip flights on its 272-seat configuration. More interestingly, a further 47 round-trip services, mainly on Mondays and Saturdays, will be on its 235-seaters, which have its new Club Suites.

This low-capacity configuration has eight First Suites, 49 Club Suites, 40 seats in World Traveller Plus, and 138 seats in World Traveller. Unsurprisingly, its First Suites are not bookable to/from Madrid. However, it is unclear whether some high-status passengers who book Club Suites will be upgraded, or if First will be fully off-limits on the short sector.

Heathrow Has Widebody Flights To 4 European Airports

Let’s focus on August 2026 and exclude any one-off or otherwise temporary twin-aisle operations. The latest information shows that Heathrow will have an average of nine daily departures on twin-aisle equipment in the peak summer. Due to Iberia reducing its flights and BA’s return, the offering is only marginally down compared to August 2025.

As of December 8, the following are planned. Turkish Airlines will fly four to five daily flights from Istanbul Airport (on the European side of the Bosphorus; A330-300/777-300ER), while Finnair will run twice a day from Helsinki (A350-900). Three-quarters of Turkish’s Heathrow services will be on widebodies, against half for Finnair.

BA will operate daily to Madrid (777-200ER), Iberia will fly six times weekly from Madrid (A330-200/A330-300/A350-900), and Icelandair will run five times a week from Keflavik (767-300ER). Given that Icelandair will retire its passenger 767s in late 2026, catch them while you can.

Flashback To August 2004

It’ll hardly come as a surprise that Heathrow’s European flights on widebody aircraft have fallen dramatically over the years. For example, in August 2004, Cirium shows that an average of 32 daily departures were available. One in 14 of the airport’s European flights was on a twin-aisle aircraft, against one in 50 in August 2026.

Let’s go back to August 2004. Multiple carriers deployed twin-aisle equipment to the UK’s busiest airport, including Aeroflot (A310-300, 777-200ER, Il-96), BA (767-300ER), Cyprus Airways (A330-200), Lufthansa (A300-600), KLM (767-300ER), Olympic (A300-600), TAP Air Portugal (A310-300), Turkish (A310-300, A340-300), and Varig (São Paulo-Heathrow-Copenhagen; MD11).

At that time, BA only flew the 767 within Europe. In that month, more than a fifth of a century ago, it flew to Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Budapest, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Madrid, Milan Malpensa, Moscow Domodedovo, Munich, Nice, Prague, Rome Fiumicino, and Stockholm Arlanda. As well as greater passenger capacity, it was also important for freight. It feels like a lifetime ago.