Flights between the UK and Hong Kong: what a delay is worth
Every route the CAA tracks between the UK and Hong Kong 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 Hong Kong instead and the airline was a UK or EU carrier). Find your route below.
| Route | 3h+ delay pays |
|---|---|
| Heathrow → Hong Kong (Chek Lap Kok) | £520 |
| Manchester → Hong Kong (Chek Lap Kok) | £520 |
All 2 tracked UK ↔ Hong Kong routes, sorted by yearly flight volume. Figures are per passenger under UK261; EU261 pays €600 for the same band.
In the last 12 months, 5,067 flights operated between the UK and Hong Kong: 70.1% ran within 15 minutes of schedule, and 0.8% were 3 or more hours late, roughly 41 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 down on last year: 70.1% of flights ran on time against 73.2% in the twelve months before, and the average delay rose from 14.4 to 17.6 minutes.
Flights (12mo)
5,067
On time
70.1%
▼ 3.1pts vs last year
Avg delay
17.6 min
▲ 3.2 min vs last year
3h+ delayed
0.8%
Cancelled
0.9%
Hong Kong, month by month
Worst month: August 2025, averaging 32.2 minutes.
Busiest routes between the UK and Hong Kong
| UK airport | Destination | 3h+ delay pays |
|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | Hong Kong (Chek Lap Kok) | £520 |
| Manchester | Hong Kong (Chek Lap Kok) | £520 |
UK airports flying to Hong Kong
| Airport | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | 0.8% | 69.7% |
| Manchester | 1.1% | 72.6% |
Airlines flying between the UK and Hong Kong
| Airline | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| Cathay Pacific Airways | 0.9% | 68.8% |
| British Airways | 0.4% | 78.2% |
Your rights on this route
Every flight leaving the UK for Hong Kong is covered by UK261, whichever airline operates it. Flights the other way, landing in the UK from Hong Kong, 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 Hong Kong'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.