Walsh scraps BA flight to Sir Rod's home town

BA flights to Australia's second-biggest city will be suspended from next month because the route is unprofitable, a spokeswoman for the airline said.

The scrapping of the route comes in the same month that Melbourne hosts the Commonwealth Games, an event which is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors to the city. The opening ceremony is on 15 March.

The spokeswoman insisted the timing of the decision was "purely coincidental" and was not related in any way to Sir Rod's departure and Mr Walsh's arrival. "I'm sure that Sir Rod would have been the first to say that if a route was not contributing to the bottom line, BA's target of achieving a 10 per cent operating margin, then it needs to be reviewed."

BA said that although it would no longer be operating the route from next month, Qantas, one of its partners in the Oneworld alliance, would continue to fly twice a day to Melbourne from Heathrow. BA will codeshare on these services.