Flights between the UK and Mexico: what a delay is worth
Every route the CAA tracks between the UK and Mexico 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 Mexico instead and the airline was a UK or EU carrier). Find your route below.
| Route | 3h+ delay pays |
|---|---|
| Heathrow → Mexico City | £520 |
| Gatwick → Cancun | £520 |
| Manchester → Cancun | £520 |
| Birmingham → Cancun | £520 |
| Heathrow → Cancun | £520 |
| Glasgow → Cancun | £520 |
| Newcastle → Cancun | £520 |
All 7 tracked UK ↔ Mexico routes, sorted by yearly flight volume. Figures are per passenger under UK261; EU261 pays €600 for the same band.
In the last 12 months, 3,670 flights operated between the UK and Mexico: 73.5% ran within 15 minutes of schedule, and 0.9% were 3 or more hours late, roughly 33 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: 73.5% of flights ran on time against 68.3% in the twelve months before, and the average delay fell from 23.6 to 16.7 minutes.
Flights (12mo)
3,670
On time
73.5%
▲ 5.2pts vs last year
Avg delay
16.7 min
▼ 6.9 min vs last year
3h+ delayed
0.9%
Cancelled
1.0%
Mexico, month by month
Worst month: July 2025, averaging 25.2 minutes.
Busiest routes between the UK and Mexico
| UK airport | Destination | 3h+ delay pays |
|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | Mexico City | £520 |
| Gatwick | Cancun | £520 |
| Manchester | Cancun | £520 |
| Birmingham | Cancun | £520 |
| Heathrow | Cancun | £520 |
| Glasgow | Cancun | £520 |
| Newcastle | Cancun | £520 |
UK airports flying to Mexico
| Airport | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | 0.9% | 78.5% |
| Gatwick | 1.1% | 71.7% |
| Manchester | 0.2% | 65.5% |
| Birmingham | 2.2% | 72.9% |
| Glasgow | <0.5% | 69.4% |
| Newcastle | 1.1% | 70.0% |
Airlines flying between the UK and Mexico
| Airline | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| TUI Airways | 0.8% | 67.9% |
| British Airways | 1.4% | 72.5% |
| Aeromexico | 0.5% | 83.6% |
| Virgin Atlantic | <0.5% | 87.9% |
Your rights on this route
Every flight leaving the UK for Mexico is covered by UK261, whichever airline operates it. Flights the other way, landing in the UK from Mexico, 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 Mexico'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.