How much compensation for a delayed United Airlines flight?
£520 each, if you land 3 hours or more late
United Airlines is one of the 10 worst of the 80 airlines flying at UK airports for 3-hour delays.
Claim firms take a success fee, typically 20-30% plus VAT, and more again if the case has to go legal. On £520 that leaves you about £245 to £395. A claim firm only gets paid if it wins, so lose and you pay nothing.
We earn a fee if you claim through it.
What you're owed
Every United Airlines route we hold a distance for falls in the same band, so that is the figure. About 281 United Airlines flights a year cross that line.
What it pays
Pick the airport you flew from
United Airlines flies from 2 UK airports, so there is no single distance and no single figure. Open the one you flew from and every destination is 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 United Airlines get delayed a lot?
Yes, more than most. It's one of the 10 worst of the 80 airlines flying at UK airports, with about 1 flight in 55 landing 3 or more hours late (1.8%).
That works out at about 281 flights a year crossing the 3-hour line, which is the point the airline has to pay.
When is it worst?
July 2025, when United Airlines flights ran an average of 31.1 minutes late.
See all the numbers for United Airlines
In the last 12 months, United Airlines operated 15,596 flights at UK airports, and 1.8% were 3 or more hours late, the threshold where £520 each becomes payable.
The on-time rate held at 75.8%, and the average delay rose from 17.6 to 18.3 minutes.
| United Airlines, last 12 months | Figure | vs year before |
|---|---|---|
| Flights at UK airports | 15,596 | was 15,066 |
| Ran on time (within 15 min) | 75.8% | no change |
| Average delay | 18.3 min | ▲ was 17.6 min |
| 3 hours or more late (the line where they pay) | 1.8% | - |
| Cancelled | 2.0% | - |
| Flights 3 hours or more late (a year) | 281 flights/year | - |
The CAA's figures combine arrivals and departures, so this covers both directions of travel.
United Airlines' delays, month by month
Worst month: July 2025, averaging 31.1 minutes.
Where it flies
United Airlines at each UK airport
From our own tracking
Recent United Airlines flights we logged running late
Every United Airlines arrival we logged running 3 or more hours late, or cancelled, at the airports we sweep since August. Newest first, and only flights UK or EU rules cover. A cancelled row carries no figure because what it pays turns on the notice you were given. The amount is what UK or EU rules pay that passenger, per person on the booking: usually the full rate for the distance, and half of it on the longest flights that landed between 3 and 4 hours late. Airlines can still dispute a claim by proving the cause was outside their control, so check yours to get the real answer.
UA231
United Airlines
Glasgow → Newark Liberty International Airport
5 Oct · 16:40 → 21:47
UA121
United Airlines
Barcelona → Newark Liberty International Airport
5 Oct · 15:05 → 18:09
UA231
United Airlines
Glasgow → Newark Liberty International Airport
3 Oct · 16:40 → 20:07
UA921
United Airlines
London → Newark Liberty International Airport
3 Oct · 21:20 → 00:26
UA65
United Airlines
Lisbon → Newark Liberty International Airport
2 Oct · 13:20
UA55
United Airlines
Paris → Newark Liberty International Airport
1 Oct · 15:45 → 20:49
UA56
United Airlines
Paris → Newark Liberty International Airport
1 Oct · 11:55 → 15:08
UA37
United Airlines
Edinburgh → Newark Liberty International Airport
30 Sept · 12:25
UA65
United Airlines
Lisbon → Newark Liberty International Airport
30 Sept · 13:20
UA271
United Airlines
Limerick city → Newark Liberty International Airport
29 Sept · 14:55 → 22:58
UA15
United Airlines
London → Newark Liberty International Airport
28 Sept · 18:40
UA71
United Airlines
Amsterdam → Newark Liberty International Airport
26 Sept · 11:30
UA386
United Airlines
Dubrovnik → Newark Liberty International Airport
26 Sept · 16:30
UA43
United Airlines
Frankfurt-am-Main → Newark Liberty International Airport
24 Sept · 13:40 → 17:51
UA316
United Airlines
Dublin → Newark Liberty International Airport
23 Sept · 16:20 → 21:33
Yours in the list? Check it free and we'll tell you what the airline owes you.
How to claim
Claiming from United Airlines
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 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 £520 each on the distances United Airlines 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, 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. Methodology and limitations.