How much compensation for a delayed Air China flight?
£520 each, if you land 4 hours or more late (£260 each at 3 to 4 hours)
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FreePick your airports and the date you flew. We'll list every flight on that route that day.
A few quick questions. No personal details needed.
Air China is about average for the 81 airlines flying at UK airports for 3-hour delays.
- Flights a year
- 3,064
- Landed on time
- 83.8%
- Land 3 hours or more late
- 12 a year
Last 12 months, CAA data
What you're owed
Every Air China route we hold a distance for falls in the same band, so that is the figure. About 12 Air China flights a year cross that line.
The short answer
Getting compensation from Air China
If your Air China flight from the UK landed 3 hours or more late, or was cancelled with less than 2 weeks' notice, everyone on the booking may be owed up to £520 each when the cause was within the airline's control. Air China is a Chinese airline, so only flights leaving the UK or the EU are covered, not flights from China into the UK.
Is my flight from Beijing to London covered?
No. UK and EU rules only cover an airline from outside Europe on flights leaving the UK or the EU. A late Air China flight into London does not pay fixed compensation.
What if I missed my connection in Beijing?
If the whole trip was one booking that started in the UK, what counts is how late you reached your final destination. Land 3 hours or more late there and you may be owed money, even if the delay began on the second flight.
How much is a late Air China flight from the UK worth?
Flights from the UK to China are long-haul, so a delay of 4 hours or more at your final destination pays £520 each, and a delay of 3 to 4 hours pays half, £260 each. Children count as passengers too.
Does a cancelled Air China flight count?
Yes, if you were told less than 2 weeks before the flight. You are owed the same as a long delay unless Air China offered a replacement close to your original times, or the cause was outside its control. You can also choose a full refund instead of a new flight.
What it pays
Pick the airport you flew from
Air China flies from 2 of the UK airports we cover, so there is no single distance and no single figure. Open the one you flew from to see its busiest routes priced.
Watch my flight
Flying soon? We'll watch your flight
If it lands 3 hours or more late we email you what you're owed.
How bad is it
Does Air China get delayed a lot?
Not especially. It's about average for the 81 airlines flying at UK airports, with about 1 flight in 250 landing 3 hours or more late (0.4%).
That works out at about 12 flights a year crossing the 3-hour line, which is the point the airline has to pay.
When is it worst?
November 2025, when Air China flights ran an average of 15 minutes late.
See all the numbers for Air China
In the last 12 months, Air China operated 3,064 flights at UK airports, and 0.4% were 3 hours or more late, the threshold where £260 each becomes payable, rising to £520 each from 4 hours late.
Flights are landing on time more often than last year: 83.8% ran on time against 81.2% in the twelve months before, and the average delay fell from 10.4 to 8.9 minutes.
| Air China, last 12 months | Figure | vs year before |
|---|---|---|
| Flights at UK airports | 3,064 | was 2,870 |
| Ran on time (within 15 min) | 83.8% | ▲ was 81.2% |
| Average delay | 8.9 min | ▼ was 10.4 min |
| 3 hours or more late (the line where they pay) | 0.4% | - |
| Cancelled | 0.1% | - |
| Flights 3 hours or more late (a year) | 12 flights/year | - |
The CAA's figures combine arrivals and departures, so this covers both directions of travel.
Air China's delays, month by month
Worst month: November 2025, averaging 15 minutes.
Where it flies
Air China at each UK airport
How to claim
Claiming from Air China
Airlines rarely pay compensation on their own. Nothing happens until someone claims, and plenty of first claims come back refused when the airline blames something outside its control.
The rules do not change with the airline. What decides your claim is where the flight took off and how late it landed, not whose aircraft it was.
Your rights
What the rules turn on
Where the flight leaves from matters most. Anything leaving a UK airport is covered by the UK rules whoever operates it, and anything leaving the EU by the EU's. A flight into the UK or the EU is covered too when a UK or EU airline flies it. A delay of 4 hours or more on arrival pays £520 each (£260 each at 3 to 4 hours) on the distances Air China flies, when the cause was within the airline's control, which covers technical faults, crew shortages and the knock-on from a late inbound aircraft. It pays nothing when the cause was genuinely extraordinary, though airlines stretch that word further than the case law supports, so a refusal on those grounds is worth testing rather than accepting.
Other airlines
Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority punctuality statistics, August 2025 to July 2026. Analysis by CheckFlightCompensation; the CAA is credited as the data source as its publication conditions require. Figures cover the 25 largest UK airports. Methodology and limitations.