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London Heathrow is setting up a livelier long-haul map for the coming winter season, as new and returning services put Costa Rica, Phuket and Tel Aviv firmly back in focus for UK travelers and connecting traffic alike.

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Heathrow sharpens winter focus with Costa Rica, Phuket, Tel Aviv

Winter shake-up signals demand for long-haul choice

Published schedules and airport updates for the late 2024 and 2025 winter seasons show Heathrow leaning into long-haul demand, with an emphasis on winter sun, nature and culturally significant cities. The mix of Costa Rica, Thailand’s Phuket and Israel’s Tel Aviv gives airlines access to leisure travelers seeking warm-weather escapes as well as essential links for business and visiting-friends-and-relatives traffic.

Data compiled by Heathrow and partner carriers for the winter period from late October illustrates a broader pattern of capacity growth on key intercontinental routes, particularly through Gulf and European hubs. Qatar Airways, for example, is moving to operate up to 56 weekly flights between Doha and London Heathrow in the 2024 to 2025 peak season, opening additional one-stop options to Indian Ocean and Asian destinations such as Phuket and Male for UK passengers using Heathrow as their starting point.

That shift aligns with Heathrow’s own route-development messaging, which highlights winter as a moment to rebalance the network and support airlines as they redeploy aircraft from European summer flying to long-haul operations. Airport route blogs and planning documents refer to “more routes and more frequencies this winter,” a phrase that reflects carriers’ attempts to capture both premium and price-sensitive segments as global travel demand remains resilient.

Against that backdrop, Costa Rica, Phuket and Tel Aviv stand out as strategic additions that complement Heathrow’s established North American, Gulf and European portfolios, while offering passengers a wider spread of climates and travel styles within a single winter timetable.

Costa Rica has steadily built its profile in the UK market as a sustainable tourism specialist, and Heathrow’s winter schedules underline that momentum. British Airways maintains nonstop services between London Heathrow and San José’s Juan Santamaría International Airport, typically clustered in the northern winter when demand from Europe for Central American sunshine and wildlife experiences peaks. Independent schedule trackers list the Heathrow to San José route among the airport’s direct long-haul leisure links, indicating several weekly departures in the main winter window.

The route gives UK travelers a rare nonstop option into Central America from Heathrow, bypassing the need to connect via Madrid, the United States or Mexico City. For Costa Rican tourism interests, it offers direct access to one of Europe’s most important aviation hubs, feeding visitors into national parks, Pacific and Caribbean coasts, and the capital’s growing business district. The timing of flights, concentrated in the boreal winter, coincides with Costa Rica’s dry season, when conditions are typically best for outdoor activities from rainforest trekking to surf breaks.

Network planners see the Heathrow to San José link as part of a wider strategy to diversify long-haul leisure destinations, helping to balance traditional Caribbean beach routes with more environmentally focused itineraries. Publicly available route maps from carriers and airport marketing materials place the Costa Rica connection alongside established Latin American services, reinforcing Heathrow’s position as a European gateway to the wider Americas during the winter months.

Phuket: new nonstops add weight to Asia rebound

Thailand’s Phuket is emerging as one of the headline additions to Heathrow’s winter schedule. Heathrow’s own route update pages outline six new routes that will debut from March 2026, with Phuket scheduled to join the line-up later in October, just as the Northern Hemisphere winter season begins. The material describes nonstop Heathrow to Phuket flights as providing an effortless link to one of Southeast Asia’s most in-demand island destinations, with an initial schedule showing several weekly departures timed for holidaymakers.

The launch builds on existing one-stop flows to Phuket via Gulf and Asian hubs. Emirates and Qatar Airways both promote overnight departures from Heathrow that connect through Dubai and Doha respectively, funnelling UK passengers onward to Phuket and other Thai gateways. The addition of a direct Heathrow to Phuket option over the winter season is expected to shorten journey times for point-to-point travelers and create new premium-cabin demand from those willing to pay for the convenience of avoiding a transfer.

From an airport perspective, a dedicated Phuket service also broadens Heathrow’s Asian reach as the region’s tourism recovery continues. Industry analysis around the winter 2024 and 2025 seasons portrays Southeast Asia as a growth engine for long-haul leisure, and positioning Phuket alongside existing services to Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur offers a clearer proposition to tour operators packaging sun-focused itineraries. The later-October start, aligned with the IATA winter timetable, is designed to capture both school holiday travel and peak Christmas and New Year demand.

Phuket’s role in the winter shake-up is therefore twofold: it supports Heathrow’s ambition to extend its network eastward with more point-to-point options, and it strengthens the airport’s hand in the competitive market for UK travelers comparing London’s various airports and departure points for long-haul Asian trips.

Tel Aviv remains one of the more complex elements of Heathrow’s winter planning. Before regional instability, the city was served by multiple carriers from Heathrow, including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Israel’s El Al, with daily or near-daily frequencies documented in schedules and historic timetable summaries. Aero industry trackers show that at various points British Airways has operated up to two daily Heathrow to Tel Aviv services, underlining the route’s importance for both business and leisure travel.

Conflict in Israel and Gaza in late 2023 prompted suspensions and schedule revisions across airlines serving Tel Aviv. According to publicly available news coverage, British Airways halted its Heathrow to Tel Aviv operations for an extended period, with trade press reports in 2024 citing suspensions lasting into late October of that year. Virgin Atlantic’s Heathrow to Tel Aviv service, launched in 2019, has also experienced pauses and revised restart dates amid evolving security assessments, with reports of a targeted return in the autumn once conditions permit.

Despite this volatility, Heathrow and its partner airlines continue to treat Tel Aviv as a strategically significant route in the medium term. Tel Aviv connects the UK to Israel’s technology and start-up sectors, as well as to religious and cultural tourism tied to Jerusalem and other sites. Industry commentary describes airlines as pursuing a phased restoration of frequencies, balancing demand from corporate accounts and diaspora communities against operational and insurance considerations. Updated timetables are typically loaded into global distribution systems on a rolling basis as the security outlook becomes clearer.

For the coming winters, that means Tel Aviv’s presence in Heathrow’s network is likely to be more dynamic than the relatively stable patterns emerging for Costa Rica and Phuket. Travelers considering winter trips to Israel from Heathrow are being encouraged in public advisories and route-update blogs to monitor airline announcements closely and to remain flexible on dates and routings, particularly where services may be consolidated or rerouted at short notice.

Heathrow positions itself at the center of winter traffic flows

Taken together, the focus on Costa Rica, Phuket and Tel Aviv for the winter season highlights Heathrow’s dual role as both an origin airport for UK travelers and a key node in wider global networks. Enhancements in frequencies by Gulf carriers such as Qatar Airways and Emirates, combined with new point-to-point services like the planned nonstop to Phuket, underpin Heathrow’s ability to offer multiple routing choices between Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas.

Heathrow’s route-development communications characterize these changes as part of a broader evolution of the airport’s long-haul strategy, with new destinations and restored services complementing incremental capacity on already popular routes. As more carriers finalize their winter schedules, observers expect further adjustments to timings and aircraft types on long-haul sectors, aimed at smoothing peak-period congestion and fine-tuning connections through partner hubs.

For passengers, the practical impact of this winter shake-up is a richer menu of options. Nonstop access to Costa Rica, the prospect of direct flights to Phuket and the gradual re-emergence of Tel Aviv from Heathrow add diversity to the airport’s winter geography. In an increasingly competitive London aviation market, that variety will be central to Heathrow’s pitch to travelers deciding where to start their next long-haul journey.

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Qatar Airways winter 2024-2025 frequency increases to London Heathrow

Flight schedules for London Heathrow to San José, Costa Rica (LHR-SJO)