London Heathrow: flights 3+ hours late or cancelled, by route

Of 481,840 scheduled flights to and from London Heathrow in 2025, 1.8% were cancelled or at least 3 hours late (95% range 1.76%–1.84%). Among its 160 busy routes (500+ flights), the worst was Kigali (8.5%) and the best Split (0.0%). Source: UK CAA.

How it works ↓

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

1.8%3+ hours late or cancelled

481,840scheduled flights 2025

160routes with 500+ flights

Routes with 500+ flights, worst first

Route	3h+ late or cancelled	Flights	km	UK261
Kigali	8.5%	720	6,605	£520
Helsinki	6.8%	4,103	1,848	£350
Charlotte	5.7%	2,189	6,409	£520
Tel Aviv	5.3%	1,441	3,589	£520
Salt Lake City	4.7%	526	7,811	£520
Halifax	4.3%	710	4,585	£520
Dallas Fort Worth	4.2%	3,469	7,627	£520
Calgary	4.1%	1,475	7,014	£520
Philadelphia	4.0%	1,910	5,690	£520
Perth (Australia)	3.9%	732	14,508	£520
Chicago O'Hare	3.9%	5,714	6,344	£520
New York Newark	3.8%	6,541	5,562	£520
Austin	3.7%	1,083	7,892	£520
Montreal	3.5%	1,739	5,215	£520
Washington Dulles	3.5%	3,970	5,902	£520
Brussels	3.5%	5,161	350	£220
Dundee	3.2%	907	579	£220
Toronto	3.2%	4,372	5,707	£520
Jeddah	3.2%	2,105	4,748	£520
Phoenix	3.1%	1,149	8,463	£520
Sydney	3.1%	1,463	17,021	£520
Bogotá	3.0%	731	8,473	£520
Nairobi	3.0%	1,494	6,841	£520
Houston	3.0%	2,737	7,763	£520
Detroit	2.7%	735	6,045	£520
Atlanta	2.7%	3,657	6,761	£520
Mexico City	2.7%	1,381	8,904	£520
Delhi	2.7%	5,513	6,731	£520
Aberdeen *	2.6%	4,809	647	£220
Raleigh	2.6%	725	6,216	£520
New York JFK	2.6%	15,281	5,540	£520
Miami	2.4%	3,852	7,109	£520
Johannesburg	2.4%	2,176	9,075	£520
Chennai	2.4%	714	8,235	£520
Bermuda	2.3%	639	8,666	£520
Boston	2.3%	5,458	5,240	£520
Los Angeles	2.3%	6,123	8,760	£520
Hyderabad	2.2%	722	7,754	£520
Baltimore	2.2%	683	5,834	£520
Mumbai	2.2%	5,157	7,213	£520
Gibraltar	2.2%	1,334	1,747	£350
San Diego	2.1%	1,072	8,807	£520
Riyadh	2.0%	4,183	4,940	£520
Lyon	2.0%	1,720	758	£220
Kuala Lumpur	2.0%	2,012	10,605	£520
Amsterdam	2.0%	11,430	370	£220
Ireland West (Knock)	2.0%	716	625	£220
Frankfurt	1.9%	11,225	654	£220
Orlando	1.9%	1,328	6,965	£520
Basel-Mulhouse	1.9%	2,520	718	£220
Berlin Brandenburg	1.9%	4,936	961	£220
Minneapolis-St Paul	1.9%	729	6,443	£520
Bengaluru	1.9%	2,085	8,046	£520
Derry	1.9%	2,079	597	£220
São Paulo	1.8%	1,546	9,460	£520
Paris (Charles de Gaulle)	1.8%	9,405	348	£220
Grand Cayman	1.7%	517	7,719	£520
Nice	1.7%	5,321	1,041	£220
Milan (Malpensa)	1.7%	2,204	936	£220
Munich	1.7%	9,722	941	£220
Edinburgh *	1.7%	7,842	534	£220
Hong Kong	1.7%	4,353	9,630	£520
Santiago de Compostela	1.7%	532	1,126	£220
San Francisco	1.7%	4,335	8,616	£520
Hanover	1.7%	1,492	703	£220
Florence	1.7%	963	1,218	£220
Glasgow *	1.7%	7,195	555	£220
Newcastle	1.6%	3,813	405	£220
Marseille	1.6%	2,182	989	£220
Vancouver	1.6%	1,764	7,579	£520
Milan (Linate)	1.6%	4,529	981	£220
Shanghai Pudong	1.6%	1,406	9,241	£520
Stuttgart	1.6%	3,298	756	£220
Nashville	1.6%	750	6,713	£520
Cologne Bonn	1.6%	2,952	534	£220
Denver	1.6%	1,860	7,497	£520
Doha	1.5%	7,074	5,241	£520
Zagreb	1.5%	781	1,368	£220
Belfast City	1.5%	4,582	503	£220
Luxembourg	1.5%	1,253	514	£220
Pisa	1.5%	933	1,186	£220
Barcelona	1.5%	7,006	1,148	£220
Shannon	1.5%	2,083	594	£220
Toulouse	1.5%	1,888	883	£220
Taipei	1.5%	1,218	9,783	£520
Palma de Mallorca	1.4%	1,111	1,348	£220
Geneva	1.4%	8,908	754	£220
Hamburg	1.4%	4,671	745	£220
Bilbao	1.4%	567	927	£220
Lisbon	1.4%	7,623	1,564	£350
Paris (Orly)	1.4%	720	365	£220
Keflavik	1.4%	2,171	1,895	£350
Isle of Man	1.4%	728	403	£220
Accra	1.4%	729	5,100	£520
Inverness	1.4%	1,315	714	£220
Bahrain	1.4%	1,906	5,094	£520
Pittsburgh	1.3%	590	5,971	£520
Singapore	1.3%	3,652	10,883	£520
Dubai	1.3%	6,949	5,498	£520
Kuwait	1.3%	1,653	4,675	£520
Bologna	1.3%	1,980	1,163	£220
Dublin	1.3%	11,989	449	£220
Malé	1.3%	846	8,539	£520
Cape Town	1.3%	1,565	9,682	£520
Amman	1.3%	1,413	3,683	£520
Prague	1.3%	3,486	1,044	£220
Manchester *	1.3%	5,154	243	£220
Las Vegas	1.2%	1,609	8,395	£520
Buenos Aires	1.2%	730	11,106	£520
Copenhagen	1.2%	7,246	979	£220
Tokyo Haneda	1.2%	3,434	9,592	£520
Zurich	1.2%	8,700	788	£220
Seattle	1.2%	2,550	7,702	£520
Düsseldorf	1.2%	5,514	502	£220
Guangzhou Baiyun	1.1%	708	9,496	£520
Rome (Fiumicino)	1.1%	5,510	1,444	£220
Ibiza	1.0%	784	1,408	£220
Billund	1.0%	790	791	£220
Jersey	1.0%	2,175	280	£220
Casablanca	1.0%	898	2,094	£350
Athens	1.0%	6,089	2,427	£350
Gothenburg	1.0%	1,398	1,069	£220
Madrid	1.0%	9,517	1,244	£220
Oslo	1.0%	5,258	1,206	£220
Venice	1.0%	3,358	1,151	£220
Belgrade	0.9%	850	1,701	£350
Málaga	0.9%	1,596	1,676	£350
Budapest	0.9%	2,649	1,489	£220
Beirut	0.9%	1,114	3,482	£350
Valencia	0.9%	1,004	1,332	£220
Cork	0.9%	2,910	555	£220
Abuja	0.9%	786	4,774	£520
Colombo	0.9%	816	8,715	£520
Portland	0.9%	584	7,886	£520
Vienna	0.8%	6,122	1,275	£220
Tampa	0.8%	722	7,085	£520
Beijing Capital	0.8%	1,451	8,154	£520
Lagos	0.8%	1,460	5,004	£520
Addis Ababa	0.8%	733	5,920	£520
Bridgetown	0.8%	1,383	6,751	£520
Warsaw	0.8%	4,203	1,469	£220
Stockholm	0.7%	5,778	1,463	£220
Abu Dhabi	0.7%	3,229	5,516	£520
Cairo	0.7%	3,525	3,533	£520
Larnaca	0.6%	2,330	3,278	£350
Istanbul	0.6%	6,526	2,487	£350
Corfu	0.6%	670	2,052	£350
Sofia	0.6%	852	2,041	£350
Bucharest (Otopeni)	0.5%	1,494	2,105	£350
Naples	0.5%	1,386	1,630	£350
Bangkok	0.5%	1,463	9,578	£520
Malta	0.5%	1,502	2,104	£350
Beijing Daxing	0.4%	714	8,197	£520
Faro	0.4%	1,020	1,713	£350
Muscat	0.4%	806	5,833	£520
Seoul Incheon	0.4%	1,411	8,861	£520
Mykonos	0.3%	582	2,552	£350
Santorini	0.2%	512	2,644	£350
Tirana	0.2%	632	1,898	£350
Split	0.0%	524	1,531	£350

* Domestic route measured at the other airport (both airports report the same flights; we show the larger one's figures).

At London Heathrow, the UK's busiest airport, weather often slows arrivals but rarely wrecks flights. In 2025 the share of disrupted flights was only slightly above the national average (1.6%), yet the spread between routes and carriers is wide.

A third of days with weather restrictions on arrivals, and a 1.8% disruption rate

Between January 2018 and September 2026, EUROCONTROL imposed weather restrictions on arrivals at London Heathrow on 1,017 out of 3,195 days (32%), including 54% of days in December: second place among the 94 airports on this site. On average, though, that amounts to 1.42 minutes of delay per arriving flight. When a restriction is in force, the aircraft waits for its departure slot at the origin airport, and usually that means minutes of waiting (Heathrow weather by month).

Routes and airlines

Of 160 busy routes, Kigali fares worst (8.5%), followed by Helsinki (6.8%); Finnair had 272 cancellations here. New York JFK, the busiest of all, came in at 2.6% across 15,281 flights, with compensation there of up to £520. British Airways operates half the airport's flights with a share of 1.6%, while American Airlines stands at 4.6%.

Airlines at this airport

Airline	Scheduled flights	3h+ late or cancelled	95% range	Cancelled
British Airways	243,799	1.6%	1.55%–1.65%	3,078
Virgin Atlantic	21,891	1.8%	1.66%–2.02%	327
American Airlines	15,838	4.6%	4.3%–5.0%	442
Lufthansa	14,047	1.7%	1.5%–1.9%	230
United Airlines	13,801	3.4%	3.1%–3.7%	253
Aer Lingus	13,560	1.1%	0.92%–1.27%	127
Swiss	8,701	1.3%	1.1%–1.6%	111
Eurowings	8,491	1.0%	0.8%–1.3%	78
SAS	7,921	1.0%	0.8%–1.3%	76
Delta	7,110	3.0%	2.6%–3.4%	124
Air Canada	6,183	4.0%	3.5%–4.5%	170
Qatar Airways	5,923	1.2%	1.0%–1.5%	23
Iberia	5,806	0.8%	0.6%–1.1%	38
KLM	5,527	2.4%	2.0%–2.8%	127
Air France	5,014	1.9%	1.6%–2.3%	84
Air India	4,673	3.8%	3.3%–4.4%	67
Turkish Airlines	4,632	0.6%	0.4%–0.9%	20
Emirates	4,496	0.6%	0.4%–0.8%	15
TAP Air Portugal	4,308	1.4%	1.1%–1.8%	44
Finnair	4,104	6.8%	6.1%–7.6%	272
Saudia	3,965	2.4%	2.0%–2.9%	32
Loganair	3,951	2.0%	1.6%–2.5%	71
Cathay Pacific	3,625	1.7%	1.3%–2.1%	37
Austrian	3,424	0.7%	0.5%–1.1%	25
Vueling	3,266	1.2%	0.9%–1.7%	28
Etihad	2,923	0.7%	0.5%–1.1%	9
Singapore Airlines	2,920	1.0%	0.7%–1.5%	20
Aegean	2,636	0.7%	0.5%–1.1%	18
Brussels Airlines	2,546	2.8%	2.2%–3.5%	67
JetBlue	2,189	1.4%	1.0%–1.9%	14
EgyptAir	2,179	1.0%	0.6%–1.5%	13
LOT Polish Airlines	2,142	0.8%	0.5%–1.3%	14
SAS Ireland	1,966	0.1%	0.03%–0.37%	0
Air China	1,743	0.7%	0.4%–1.2%	5
China Southern	1,632	0.7%	0.4%–1.2%	8
KM Malta Airlines	1,502	0.5%	0.2%–1.0%	4
Kuwait Airways	1,500	1.2%	0.8%–1.9%	4
Malaysia Airlines	1,467	2.2%	1.5%–3.1%	18
Gulf Air	1,466	1.4%	0.9%–2.1%	8
Qantas	1,466	3.9%	3.0%–5.0%	19
Thai Airways	1,463	0.5%	0.3%–1.1%	6
Japan Airlines	1,462	0.7%	0.4%–1.3%	7
Icelandair	1,456	1.6%	1.1%–2.4%	18
Virgin Atlantic International	1,249	0.2%	0.1%–0.7%	0
El Al	1,177	2.6%	1.9%–3.7%	28
Middle East Airlines	1,114	0.9%	0.5%–1.6%	8
Royal Air Maroc	898	1.0%	0.5%–1.9%	8
Air Serbia	850	0.9%	0.5%–1.8%	2
China Eastern Airlines	850	0.6%	0.3%–1.4%	4
SriLankan	816	0.9%	0.4%–1.8%	4
Oman Air	806	0.4%	0.1%–1.1%	2
Royal Jordanian	751	0.9%	0.5%–1.9%	6
Aeromexico	746	2.8%	1.8%–4.3%	15
WestJet	745	6.1%	4.6%–8.1%	36
EVA Air	736	1.1%	0.6%–2.1%	8
Ethiopian Airlines	733	0.8%	0.4%–1.8%	5
ALL Nippon Airways	732	1.0%	0.5%–2.0%	4
TAM Linhas Aereas	732	0.3%	0.1%–1.0%	2
Avianca Colombia	731	3.0%	2.0%–4.5%	3
Korean Air	731	0.3%	0.1%–1.0%	2
Kenya Airways	729	5.0%	3.7%–6.9%	7
Rwandair	722	8.6%	6.8%–11%	12
Asiana Airlines	680	0.4%	0.1%–1.3%	2
Lufthansa City Airlines	669	0.3%	0.1%–1.1%	1
Vietnam Airlines	606	2.0%	1.1%–3.4%	4

Airlines with at least 500 scheduled flights here in 2025.

Airline pages for this airport: British Airways · Virgin Atlantic · American Airlines · Lufthansa · United Airlines · Aer Lingus · SAS · Swiss · Eurowings · Delta · Air Canada · Qatar Airways · Iberia · KLM · Air France · Air India · Turkish Airlines · Emirates · TAP Air Portugal · Finnair · Saudia · Loganair · Cathay Pacific · Austrian · Vueling · Etihad · Singapore Airlines · Aegean · Brussels Airlines · JetBlue · EgyptAir · LOT · Air China · KM Malta Airlines · Gulf Air · Icelandair · El Al · Royal Air Maroc · China Eastern Airlines

How often weather restricts arrivals at London Heathrow, by month

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.