A spokeswoman for the carrier said the company would not change its decision. 'Flights will be suspended from 27 March,' she said. 'It is always difficult to suspend any route. It will always inconvenience people who use the service but we have to look at our network. It is a commercial decision. Security fears have seen passenger numbers fall.'

BA has suspended 34 routes worldwide since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in Washington and New York. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the Middle East to be cut from the network. The UK government estimates that the British population in the kingdom has fallen from about 30,000 to about 20,000 after the atrocity and subsequent attacks on residential compounds in the kingdom. In the past two years security threats have forced the cancellation of a number of BA flights to the kingdom. The airline has also rerouted its flights out of the kingdom via Kuwait so that BA staff do not have to stop over in the kingdom during crew changes.

Sources at the Department for Transport in London say they have received interest from four UK carriers to take over the route - BMI, British Mediterranean, Virgin Airlineand the UK-registered charter airline Astraeus. They attended a briefing on the route in London on 8 February.