Flights between the UK and China: what a delay is worth
Every route the CAA tracks between the UK and China falls in the same distance band (Over 3,500 km), so a delay of 3 hours or more pays a flat £520 per passenger under UK261 if the flight left the UK (€600 under EU261 if it left China instead and the airline was a UK or EU carrier). Find your route below.
| Route | 3h+ delay pays |
|---|---|
| Gatwick → Shanghai (Pu Dong) | £520 |
| Heathrow → Beijing | £520 |
| Heathrow → Shanghai (Pu Dong) | £520 |
| Heathrow → Guangzhou Baiyun International | £520 |
| Heathrow → Beijing Daxing International Airport | £520 |
| Manchester → Beijing | £520 |
| Gatwick → Beijing | £520 |
| Heathrow → Shenzhen (Huangtian) | £520 |
| Manchester → Shanghai (Pu Dong) | £520 |
| Heathrow → Haikou | £520 |
| Heathrow → Chengdu Tianfu | £520 |
| Edinburgh → Beijing | £520 |
| Heathrow → Qingdao | £520 |
| Heathrow → Tianjin | £520 |
| Gatwick → Guangzhou Baiyun International | £520 |
All 15 tracked UK ↔ China routes, sorted by yearly flight volume. Figures are per passenger under UK261; EU261 pays €600 for the same band.
In the last 12 months, 10,596 flights operated between the UK and China: 83.5% ran within 15 minutes of schedule, and 0.4% were 3 or more hours late, roughly 42 flights' worth of eligible passengers in a year. The CAA's figures don't separate arrivals from departures, so this covers the route both ways.
Punctuality is up on last year: 83.5% of flights ran on time against 78.5% in the twelve months before, and the average delay fell from 12.2 to 9.3 minutes.
Flights (12mo)
10,596
On time
83.5%
▲ 5.0pts vs last year
Avg delay
9.3 min
▼ 2.9 min vs last year
3h+ delayed
0.4%
Cancelled
0.4%
China, month by month
Worst month: September 2025, averaging 15.1 minutes.
Busiest routes between the UK and China
| UK airport | Destination | 3h+ delay pays |
|---|---|---|
| Gatwick | Shanghai (Pu Dong) | £520 |
| Heathrow | Beijing | £520 |
| Heathrow | Shanghai (Pu Dong) | £520 |
| Heathrow | Guangzhou Baiyun International | £520 |
| Heathrow | Beijing Daxing International Airport | £520 |
| Manchester | Beijing | £520 |
| Gatwick | Beijing | £520 |
| Heathrow | Shenzhen (Huangtian) | £520 |
| Manchester | Shanghai (Pu Dong) | £520 |
| Heathrow | Haikou | £520 |
| Heathrow | Chengdu Tianfu | £520 |
| Edinburgh | Beijing | £520 |
| Heathrow | Qingdao | £520 |
| Heathrow | Tianjin | £520 |
| Gatwick | Guangzhou Baiyun International | £520 |
UK airports flying to China
| Airport | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | 0.3% | 83.8% |
| Gatwick | 0.6% | 85.1% |
| Manchester | 0.5% | 78.0% |
| Edinburgh | <0.5% | 79.3% |
Airlines flying between the UK and China
| Airline | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| Air China | 0.5% | 83.1% |
| China Southern | 0.3% | 89.0% |
| China Eastern Airlines | 0.3% | 84.9% |
| Hainan Airlines | 0.1% | 80.1% |
| British Airways | 0.9% | 76.8% |
| Shenzhen Airlines | 0.8% | 82.3% |
| Juneyao Airlines | 0.9% | 81.0% |
| Tianjin Airlines | 0.3% | 83.3% |
| Beijing Capital Airlines | <0.5% | 72.0% |
Your rights on this route
Every flight leaving the UK for China is covered by UK261, whichever airline operates it. Flights the other way, landing in the UK from China, are covered too if a UK or EU airline operated them; a return flight on a non-UK, non-EU carrier falls outside UK261, though the Montreal Convention and China's own rules may still give you a claim. See the full breakdown on the 3-hour rule. Cancelled instead of delayed? Broadly the same amounts apply under different conditions. See cancelled flight compensation.
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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.