British Airways authorities Sunday onwards suspended its direct services from Kolkata to London - practically applying its last year announcement - saying that the route was not making adequate profit! Coincidentally, the same day, Air India resumed its October 2008-suspended service on the Kolkata-London route, via Delhi.

With the last British Airways flight taking off at around 5 a. m. from the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, the carrier's thrice a week service, direct form Kolkata to Heathrow Airport in London, has been scrapped.

The British Airways service between London and Kolkata, which began in 1930s under the carrier's earlier name British Overseas Airways Corporation, has always been rather erratic. The operations on the route were discontinued in the 1980s, and resumed between Kolkata, London and Dhaka in 1993 on a three times a week basis, under the present name British Airways.

The carrier's decision to withdraw direct services between Kolkata and London has not been very well received by both the local staff as well as the passengers. While an airlines staff said that the move was "very sad; the people here have been so friendly;" the wide-ranging responses of the passengers included remarks like - "it is ridiculous," and "the service was so very convenient!"