How much compensation for a delayed Emirates flight?
£520 each, if you land 4 hours or more late (£260 each at 3 to 4 hours)
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Emirates is about average for the 81 airlines flying at UK airports for 3-hour delays.
- Flights a year
- 12,917
- Landed on time
- 67.3%
- Land 3 hours or more late
- 52 a year
Last 12 months, CAA data
What you're owed
Every Emirates route we hold a distance for falls in the same band, so that is the figure. About 52 Emirates flights a year cross that line.
The short answer
Getting compensation from Emirates
If your Emirates 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 Emirates' control. Emirates is not a UK or EU airline, so only flights leaving the UK or the EU are covered, not flights from Dubai into the UK.
Is my flight from Dubai to London covered?
No. UK and EU rules only cover an airline from outside Europe on flights leaving the UK or the EU. You can still ask Emirates for your out-of-pocket costs.
What if I missed my connection in Dubai?
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 up to £520 each, even if the delay began on the second flight.
How much is a late Emirates flight from the UK worth?
Flights from the UK to Dubai and beyond 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.
Does a cancelled Emirates flight count?
Yes, if you were told less than 2 weeks before the flight. You are owed the same as a long delay unless Emirates 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
Emirates flies from 8 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 Emirates 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 52 flights a year crossing the 3-hour line, which is the point the airline has to pay.
When is it worst?
March 2026, when Emirates flights ran an average of 43.7 minutes late.
See all the numbers for Emirates
In the last 12 months, Emirates operated 12,917 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 less often than last year: 67.3% ran on time against 72.6% in the twelve months before, and the average delay rose from 12.7 to 15.6 minutes.
| Emirates, last 12 months | Figure | vs year before |
|---|---|---|
| Flights at UK airports | 12,917 | was 13,841 |
| Ran on time (within 15 min) | 67.3% | ▼ was 72.6% |
| Average delay | 15.6 min | ▲ was 12.7 min |
| 3 hours or more late (the line where they pay) | 0.4% | - |
| Cancelled | 3.8% | - |
| Flights 3 hours or more late (a year) | 52 flights/year | - |
The CAA's figures combine arrivals and departures, so this covers both directions of travel.
Emirates' delays, month by month
Worst month: March 2026, averaging 43.7 minutes.
Where it flies
Emirates at each UK airport
| Airport | Flights | Avg delay | 3 hours or more late | Landed on time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | 4,387 | 15.8 min | 0.3% | 67.0% |
| Gatwick | 2,070 | 14.6 min | 0.2% | 68.6% |
| Manchester | 2,057 | 20.2 min | 0.9% | 58.2% |
| Stansted | 1,187 | 11.6 min | 0.3% | 74.4% |
| Birmingham | 1,179 | 15.4 min | 0.3% | 69.0% |
| Glasgow | 713 | 14.6 min | 0.1% | 68.4% |
| Newcastle | 664 | 14.3 min | 0.5% | 71.6% |
| Edinburgh | 660 | 12.9 min | 0.4% | 72.9% |
How to claim
Claiming from Emirates
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 Emirates 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.