Flights between London and Dubai will operate 11 times a week direct from April 12, while services to and from Abu Dhabi will now operate daily and continue on to Doha, Qatar.

Direct flights to Bahrain will resume on April 13 and continue on to Muscat, Oman.

"Our priority has been and continues to be to resume our full flight schedule as soon as possible. This is the first stage towards achieving this," BA's area general manager Harvey Lines said in a statement.

However, services to Jeddah and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia will still operate via Larnaca, Cyprus, while flights to Kuwait remain suspended until further notice.

BA cut flights to the Middle East in February, citing increased tensions in the wake of preparations for the US-led war on Iraq.

The carrier re-routed Gulf flights via Larnaca, where it also based crew.

In August 1990, a British Airways Boeing 747 jet carrying nearly 400 passengers and crew was stranded at Kuwait airport, having arrived as Iraq invaded the country.

It took weeks before those on board were able to return home and the plane itself was destroyed in fighting after the US-led attack to remove Iraqi forces began in January 1991.

SPACE.WIRE