SAS delay compensation, and how often you'll actually need it
£220 per passenger, if your SAS flight arrived 3 or more hours late
Every SAS route we hold a distance for falls in the same band, so that is the figure. About 13 SAS flights a year cross that line.
In the last 12 months, SAS operated 12,861 flights at UK airports, and 0.1% were 3 or more hours late, the threshold where £220 per passenger becomes payable.
Punctuality is down on last year: 81.9% of flights ran on time against 82.2% in the twelve months before, and the average delay fell from 8.6 to 8.4 minutes.
| SAS, last 12 months | Figure | vs year before |
|---|---|---|
| Flights at UK airports | 12,861 | was 13,163 |
| Ran on time (within 15 min) | 81.9% | ▼ was 82.2% |
| Average delay | 8.4 min | ▼ was 8.6 min |
| 3h+ late (compensation threshold) | 0.1% | - |
| Cancelled | 2.1% | - |
| Flights 3h+ late (a year) | 13 flights/year | - |
The CAA's figures combine arrivals and departures, so this covers both directions of travel.
SAS's delays, month by month
Worst month: January 2026, averaging 13.2 minutes.
How to claim from SAS
If SAS 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 SAS's 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.
SAS at each UK airport
| Airport | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | 0.1% | 84.4% |
| Manchester | 0.2% | 73.6% |
| Aberdeen | <0.5% | 87.8% |
| Edinburgh | 0.2% | 83.1% |
| Birmingham | 0.7% | 80.7% |
Flying soon? We'll watch your flight
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Other airlines
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.