Flights between the UK and Iceland: what a delay is worth
Iceland isn't one distance from the UK, so what a 3-hour-plus delay pays depends on the route. Find your route below, or check your flight for an exact answer.
| Route | 3h+ delay pays |
|---|---|
| Heathrow → Keflavik | £350 |
| Manchester → Keflavik | £350 |
| Gatwick → Keflavik | £350 |
| Glasgow → Keflavik | £220 |
| Edinburgh → Keflavik | £220 |
| Luton → Keflavik | £350 |
| Birmingham → Keflavik | £350 |
| Stansted → Keflavik | £350 |
| Bristol → Keflavik | £350 |
| Gatwick → Akureyri | £350 |
| Manchester → Akureyri | £350 |
All 11 tracked UK ↔ Iceland routes, sorted by yearly flight volume. Figures are per passenger under UK261; EU261 pays €250 or €400 for the same two bands.
In the last 12 months, 7,139 flights operated between the UK and Iceland: 81.5% ran within 15 minutes of schedule, and 0.8% were 3 or more hours late, roughly 57 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: 81.5% of flights ran on time against 81.1% in the twelve months before, and the average delay fell from 11.6 to 11.5 minutes.
Flights (12mo)
7,139
On time
81.5%
▲ 0.4pts vs last year
Avg delay
11.5 min
▼ 0.1 min vs last year
3h+ delayed
0.8%
Cancelled
1.5%
Iceland, month by month
Worst month: March 2026, averaging 18.2 minutes.
Busiest routes between the UK and Iceland
| UK airport | Destination | 3h+ delay pays |
|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | Keflavik | £350 |
| Manchester | Keflavik | £350 |
| Gatwick | Keflavik | £350 |
| Glasgow | Keflavik | £220 |
| Edinburgh | Keflavik | £220 |
| Luton | Keflavik | £350 |
| Birmingham | Keflavik | £350 |
| Stansted | Keflavik | £350 |
| Bristol | Keflavik | £350 |
| Gatwick | Akureyri | £350 |
| Manchester | Akureyri | £350 |
UK airports flying to Iceland
| Airport | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | 0.6% | 85.1% |
| Gatwick | 0.4% | 77.6% |
| Manchester | 1.4% | 78.0% |
| Glasgow | 0.4% | 80.2% |
| Edinburgh | 1.2% | 83.3% |
| Luton | 1.2% | 81.9% |
| Birmingham | 1.2% | 86.6% |
| Stansted | <0.5% | 85.1% |
| Bristol | 1.6% | 83.7% |
Airlines flying between the UK and Iceland
| Airline | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| Icelandair | 0.6% | 82.1% |
| easyJet | 1.6% | 79.0% |
| British Airways | 0.3% | 85.2% |
| Jet2.com | 0.6% | 83.4% |
| Fly Play Hf | <0.5% | 83.8% |
| TUI Airways | <0.5% | 75.0% |
Your rights on this route
Every flight leaving the UK for Iceland is covered by UK261, whichever airline operates it. Flights the other way, landing in the UK from Iceland, 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 Iceland'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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Airlines flying to Iceland
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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.