Flights between the UK and Ethiopia: what a delay is worth
Every route the CAA tracks between the UK and Ethiopia 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 Ethiopia instead and the airline was a UK or EU carrier). Find your route below.
| Route | 3h+ delay pays |
|---|---|
| Heathrow → Addis Ababa | £520 |
| Manchester → Addis Ababa | £520 |
| Gatwick → Addis Ababa | £520 |
All 3 tracked UK ↔ Ethiopia routes, sorted by yearly flight volume. Figures are per passenger under UK261; EU261 pays €600 for the same band.
In the last 12 months, 1,872 flights operated between the UK and Ethiopia: 69.8% ran within 15 minutes of schedule, and 0.2% were 3 or more hours late, roughly 4 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.
The on-time rate held at 69.8%, and the average delay fell from 15.3 to 14 minutes.
Flights (12mo)
1,872
On time
69.8%
→ no change vs last year
Avg delay
14 min
▼ 1.3 min vs last year
3h+ delayed
0.2%
Cancelled
0.3%
Ethiopia, month by month
Worst month: September 2025, averaging 21.5 minutes.
Busiest routes between the UK and Ethiopia
| UK airport | Destination | 3h+ delay pays |
|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | Addis Ababa | £520 |
| Manchester | Addis Ababa | £520 |
| Gatwick | Addis Ababa | £520 |
UK airports flying to Ethiopia
| Airport | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | 0.3% | 76.6% |
| Manchester | <0.5% | 69.0% |
| Gatwick | 0.2% | 58.9% |
Airlines flying between the UK and Ethiopia
| Airline | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| Ethiopian Airlines | 0.2% | 69.8% |
Your rights on this route
Every flight leaving the UK for Ethiopia is covered by UK261, whichever airline operates it. Flights the other way, landing in the UK from Ethiopia, 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 Ethiopia'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.