UK flights 3+ hours late or cancelled: routes, airports and airlines

In 2025, 1.6% of 1,879,998 scheduled flights at the 25 UK airports reported to the CAA were cancelled or at least 3 hours late. On the median busy route (500+ flights) it was 1.1%, about 1 in 88. Compensation under UK261 is due only when the airline is at fault, so these shares are an upper estimate. Source: UK CAA.

How it works ↓

Data: CAA punctuality statistics, calendar year 2025 (published 25 February 2026) · calculated 3 November 2026 · Methodology and sources

UK airports

Airport	3h+ late or cancelled	Flights	Routes
London Heathrow	1.8%	481,840	160
London Gatwick	1.4%	250,536	116
Manchester	1.8%	185,355	92
London Stansted	0.8%	178,257	111
Edinburgh	1.5%	118,047	63
London Luton	0.9%	102,814	68
Birmingham	1.5%	84,459	43
Bristol	1.2%	69,110	36
Glasgow	2.2%	64,171	33
London City	1.7%	48,227	20
Belfast International	1.0%	44,730	18
Newcastle	1.3%	38,834	20
Liverpool	1.3%	38,480	18
Leeds Bradford	1.9%	32,251	16
Belfast City	2.9%	27,959	14
Aberdeen	4.0%	27,837	14
East Midlands	0.6%	20,642	12
Southampton	4.2%	16,182	9
Jersey	2.7%	15,780	10
Isle of Man	2.9%	8,945	7
Bournemouth	0.6%	7,629	5
Exeter	4.2%	5,064	5
London Southend	0.7%	5,033	2
Cardiff	1.9%	4,560	4
Teesside	4.6%	3,256	2

A flight running at least three hours late or cancelled is rare, and even that share overstates your chance of getting paid. Bad weather, air traffic control staffing and other people's strikes count as extraordinary circumstances, and UK261 pays no compensation for them. There are no causes in the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data for 2025, so the site's figures are only an upper estimate of cases that qualify for compensation.

Where disruptions happen most

It's worst on the islands and in the north: on Aberdeen – Wick 23% of 641 flights, on London Gatwick – Newquay 18%; weather cancellations there, per the table caption, are routine. Across airports the spread runs from 0.8% at Stansted to 1.8% at Heathrow. At Heathrow, weather restricted arrivals on 32% of days between January 2018 and September 2026.

Which airlines

Ryanair and Jet2 disrupted 0.8% of flights each, Aer Lingus 3.3%, Loganair 3.6%. You claim from the airline first; without a final reply within 8 weeks, or with a poor one, you go to ADR if the airline is in a scheme, otherwise to the CAA (PACT).

Worst busy routes

Route	3h+ late or cancelled	Flights
Aberdeen – Wick	23%	641
London Gatwick – Newquay	18%	1,312
Glasgow – Barra	14%	1,372
Exeter – Isles of Scilly	13%	742
Glasgow – Tiree	11%	1,359
Southampton – Alderney	10%	1,439
Glasgow – Campbeltown	9.7%	1,083
Aberdeen – Teesside	9.2%	525
London Heathrow – Kigali	8.5%	720
Bristol – Jersey	8.0%	709
London Heathrow – Helsinki	6.8%	4,103
Glasgow – Benbecula	6.7%	1,012
Manchester – Bahrain	6.6%	525
London Stansted – Keflavik	6.5%	520
Southampton – Guernsey	6.3%	2,090

Many of the worst routes fly to small islands, where weather cancellations are common — and do not give a right to compensation.

Most reliable routes with 2,000+ flights

Route	3h+ late or cancelled	Flights
London Stansted – Rome (Ciampino)	0.2%	3,283
London Luton – Budapest	0.2%	2,160
London Stansted – Cologne Bonn	0.2%	2,015
London Gatwick – Marrakesh	0.4%	3,612
Liverpool – Málaga	0.4%	2,048
London Gatwick – Madrid	0.4%	3,783
London Gatwick – Shanghai Pudong	0.4%	2,003
London Luton – Bucharest (Otopeni)	0.4%	2,738
London Gatwick – Dubai	0.4%	2,192
London Stansted – Málaga	0.4%	2,616

Airlines

Airline	3h+ late or cancelled	95% range	Flights
easyJet	1.3%	1.25%–1.32%	393,836
British Airways	1.6%	1.56%–1.64%	354,406
Ryanair	0.8%	0.77%–0.83%	337,575
Jet2	0.8%	0.71%–0.80%	121,735
Aer Lingus	3.3%	3.15%–3.41%	71,987
Wizz Air	1.2%	1.08%–1.26%	58,084
Loganair	3.6%	3.43%–3.74%	57,028
KLM	2.8%	2.69%–3.01%	42,141
Lufthansa	1.6%	1.43%–1.73%	27,324
Virgin Atlantic	1.7%	1.57%–1.89%	25,707
Vueling	1.1%	0.98%–1.25%	23,569
TUI	1.2%	1.00%–1.33%	16,591
American Airlines	4.6%	4.3%–5.0%	16,116
United Airlines	3.5%	3.2%–3.8%	15,657
SAS	1.1%	0.97%–1.31%	14,995
Turkish Airlines	0.7%	0.59%–0.86%	14,837
Swiss	1.4%	1.25%–1.64%	14,387
Emirates	0.6%	0.53%–0.80%	14,015
Norwegian	0.9%	0.71%–1.02%	13,681
Air France	1.8%	1.6%–2.1%	13,380
Eurowings	1.2%	1.07%–1.44%	13,291
Qatar Airways	1.1%	0.93%–1.31%	11,782
Aurigny	4.8%	4.4%–5.2%	11,097
Blue Islands	6.1%	5.7%–6.6%	10,722
SunExpress	0.5%	0.36%–0.64%	9,966
Delta	2.9%	2.6%–3.3%	8,667
Pegasus	1.1%	0.9%–1.3%	8,451
Iberia	0.7%	0.57%–0.95%	7,886
TAP Air Portugal	1.8%	1.5%–2.1%	7,734
Air Canada	4.1%	3.7%–4.6%	6,687
Air India	4.8%	4.3%–5.4%	6,164
Finnair	6.1%	5.5%–6.7%	6,059
Saudia	2.1%	1.7%–2.5%	5,546
Brussels Airlines	2.7%	2.3%–3.2%	4,748
ITA Airways	0.4%	0.29%–0.68%	4,504
Cathay Pacific	1.8%	1.4%–2.2%	4,281
Singapore Airlines	1.1%	0.8%–1.5%	4,258
Etihad	0.7%	0.5%–1.0%	4,181
Eastern Airways	14%	13%–15%	4,029
Austrian	0.7%	0.5%–1.0%	3,794
Icelandair	1.5%	1.2%–2.0%	3,735
Aegean	0.8%	0.5%–1.1%	3,433
Luxair	2.3%	1.8%–2.8%	3,229
JetBlue	1.5%	1.1%–1.9%	3,156
Air China	0.8%	0.5%–1.2%	2,952
EgyptAir	0.9%	0.6%–1.3%	2,907
LOT	0.7%	0.4%–1.1%	2,661
Gulf Air	2.7%	2.1%–3.5%	2,232
KM Malta Airlines	0.4%	0.2%–0.7%	2,230
Widerøe	3.7%	3.0%–4.6%	2,221
Norse Atlantic	3.6%	2.9%–4.5%	2,204
El Al	1.6%	1.1%–2.2%	2,141
Royal Air Maroc	1.5%	1.0%–2.1%	2,082
China Eastern Airlines	0.3%	0.1%–0.6%	2,080

Caveats

This is an upper estimate of flights where compensation may be due. Weather, air traffic control, strikes by third parties and security problems are “extraordinary circumstances” and give no right to compensation; cancellations announced 14 days or more ahead do not either.
The CAA measures delay at the UK airport (departure or arrival). The legal test is the delay on arrival at the final destination.
Flights in both directions are combined. For flights from an EU airport, EU261 applies when the airline is an EU airline (€250 / €400 / €600), UK261 when it is a UK airline.