British Airways delay compensation, and how often you'll actually need it
£220 to £520 per passenger, if your British Airways flight arrived 3 or more hours late
The exact figure depends on how far you were flying, and the checker works it out from your route. About 1,236 British Airways flights a year cross that line.
In the last 12 months, British Airways operated 309,084 flights at UK airports, and 0.4% were 3 or more hours late, the threshold where £220 to £520 per passenger becomes payable.
Punctuality is up on last year: 76.4% of flights ran on time against 71.2% in the twelve months before, and the average delay fell from 15.8 to 13.1 minutes.
| British Airways, last 12 months | Figure | vs year before |
|---|---|---|
| Flights at UK airports | 309,084 | was 310,725 |
| Ran on time (within 15 min) | 76.4% | ▲ was 71.2% |
| Average delay | 13.1 min | ▼ was 15.8 min |
| 3h+ late (compensation threshold) | 0.4% | - |
| Cancelled | 1.2% | - |
| Flights 3h+ late (a year) | 1,236 flights/year | - |
The CAA's figures combine arrivals and departures, so this covers both directions of travel.
British Airways' delays, month by month
Worst month: July 2025, averaging 20.7 minutes.
How to claim from British Airways
British Airways takes compensation claims through its own online form. Compensation is not paid automatically, so nothing happens until you claim.
If you would rather write, their address for claims is British Airways Customer Relations, EU Compensation Claims, PO Box 1126, Uxbridge, UB8 9XS, United Kingdom.
BA requires signed authorisation to claim on behalf of passengers with a different surname on the same booking, and offers both an online form and a postal claims route.
If British Airways refuses and you think the refusal is wrong, the next step is CEDR, a free independent scheme whose decision the airline has agreed to accept. You do not need a solicitor and you do not pay to use it.
You can claim directly yourself and keep the whole payout, or a claim firm will do the chasing for a share of it. Both end up at the same place.
Claim route checked against British Airways' own site and the CAA's dispute-scheme lists on 12 August 2026. Airlines move these pages, so tell us if a link has gone stale.
What the rules turn on
Where the flight departed decides everything, not the airline's nationality. Anything leaving a UK airport is covered by UK261 whoever operates it, and anything leaving the EU by EU261. A delay of 3 or more hours on arrival pays £220 to £520 per passenger 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.
British Airways at each UK airport
| Airport | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | 0.4% | 77.2% |
| Gatwick | 0.9% | 68.4% |
| Glasgow | 0.1% | 81.9% |
| Edinburgh | 0.2% | 76.3% |
| Manchester | 0.1% | 69.7% |
| Aberdeen | 0.5% | 81.5% |
| Belfast City (George Best) | 0.1% | 81.4% |
| Newcastle | 0.2% | 80.5% |
| Jersey | 0.5% | 79.9% |
| Stansted | 1.7% | 45.4% |
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Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority punctuality statistics, July 2025 to June 2026. Analysis by CheckFlightCompensation; the CAA is credited as the data source as its publication conditions require. Figures cover the 25 largest UK airports.