Flights between the UK and Ireland: what a delay is worth
Every route the CAA tracks between the UK and Ireland falls in the same distance band (1,500 km or less), so a delay of 3 hours or more pays a flat £220 per passenger under UK261 if the flight left the UK (€250 under EU261 if it left Ireland instead and the airline was a UK or EU carrier). Find your route below.
| Route | 3h+ delay pays |
|---|---|
| Heathrow → Dublin | £220 |
| Manchester → Dublin | £220 |
| Edinburgh → Dublin | £220 |
| Birmingham → Dublin | £220 |
| Gatwick → Dublin | £220 |
| Stansted → Dublin | £220 |
| Glasgow → Dublin | £220 |
| Liverpool (John Lennon) → Dublin | £220 |
| Bristol → Dublin | £220 |
| Leeds Bradford → Dublin | £220 |
| London City → Dublin | £220 |
| Heathrow → Cork | £220 |
| Luton → Dublin | £220 |
| Newcastle → Dublin | £220 |
| Heathrow → Shannon | £220 |
All 15 tracked UK ↔ Ireland routes, sorted by yearly flight volume. Figures are per passenger under UK261; EU261 pays €250 for the same band.
In the last 12 months, 106,771 flights operated between the UK and Ireland: 74.0% ran within 15 minutes of schedule, and 0.4% were 3 or more hours late, roughly 427 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: 74.0% of flights ran on time against 72.3% in the twelve months before, and the average delay fell from 15.1 to 14.1 minutes.
Flights (12mo)
106,771
On time
74.0%
▲ 1.7pts vs last year
Avg delay
14.1 min
▼ 1.0 min vs last year
3h+ delayed
0.4%
Cancelled
0.8%
Ireland, month by month
Worst month: September 2025, averaging 19.1 minutes.
Busiest routes between the UK and Ireland
| UK airport | Destination | 3h+ delay pays |
|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | Dublin | £220 |
| Manchester | Dublin | £220 |
| Edinburgh | Dublin | £220 |
| Birmingham | Dublin | £220 |
| Gatwick | Dublin | £220 |
| Stansted | Dublin | £220 |
| Glasgow | Dublin | £220 |
| Liverpool (John Lennon) | Dublin | £220 |
| Bristol | Dublin | £220 |
| Leeds Bradford | Dublin | £220 |
| London City | Dublin | £220 |
| Heathrow | Cork | £220 |
| Luton | Dublin | £220 |
| Newcastle | Dublin | £220 |
| Heathrow | Shannon | £220 |
UK airports flying to Ireland
| Airport | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | 0.2% | 77.3% |
| Manchester | 0.6% | 69.7% |
| Stansted | 0.4% | 74.1% |
| Edinburgh | 0.5% | 68.4% |
| Birmingham | 0.5% | 70.7% |
| Gatwick | 0.4% | 73.4% |
| Liverpool (John Lennon) | 0.6% | 81.6% |
| Glasgow | 0.4% | 76.8% |
| Bristol | 0.5% | 74.3% |
| Luton | 0.5% | 72.3% |
| Leeds Bradford | 0.6% | 75.5% |
| London City | 0.1% | 78.0% |
| Newcastle | 0.6% | 76.3% |
| Southampton | 0.3% | 76.1% |
| Aberdeen | 1.0% | 72.2% |
| East Midlands International | 0.7% | 79.6% |
| Isle of Man | 0.3% | 73.3% |
| Cardiff Wales | 0.4% | 74.0% |
| Exeter | 0.7% | 72.5% |
| Jersey | 0.5% | 54.8% |
Airlines flying between the UK and Ireland
| Airline | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| Ryanair | 0.4% | 74.3% |
| Aer Lingus | 0.5% | 73.2% |
| British Airways | 0.3% | 74.2% |
| Emerald Airlines | 0.6% | 74.3% |
| BA CityFlyer | 0.1% | 78.0% |
| Loganair | 0.9% | 74.3% |
| Blue Islands | 1.1% | 78.3% |
Your rights on this route
Every flight leaving the UK for Ireland is covered by UK261, whichever airline operates it. Flights the other way, landing in the UK from Ireland, 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 Ireland'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.