How much compensation for a delayed UK to Portugal flight?
£220 or £350 each, if you land 3 hours or more late
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Flights between the UK and Portugal are better than most of the 71 countries the UK flies to most for 3-hour delays.
- Flights a year
- 62,453
- Routes tracked
- 15
- Land 3 hrs or more late
- 250a year
Last 12 months, CAA data
What you're owed
£220 or £350each if you land 3 hours or more late
Portugal 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 | 3 hours or more pays |
|---|---|
| Heathrow → Lisbon | £350each |
| Gatwick → Faro | £350each |
| Gatwick → Lisbon | £350each |
| Gatwick → Oporto (Portugal) | £220each |
| Manchester → Faro | £350each |
| Stansted → Faro | £350each |
| Manchester → Lisbon | £350each |
| Stansted → Lisbon | £350each |
| Bristol → Faro | £350each |
| Luton → Faro | £350each |
| Stansted → Oporto (Portugal) | £220each |
| Gatwick → Funchal | £350each |
| Luton → Lisbon | £350each |
| Birmingham → Faro | £350each |
| Belfast International → Faro | £350each |
All 15 tracked UK ↔ Portugal routes, sorted by yearly flight volume. Figures are each; the EU version of the law pays €250 or €400 for the same two bands.
The figure is payable only when the delay was within the airline's control. A technical fault, a crew shortage or a late inbound aircraft all count; genuinely extraordinary circumstances such as severe weather or an air traffic control restriction do not.
How bad is it
Do flights between the UK and Portugal get delayed a lot?
No, less than most. They're better than most of the 71 countries the UK flies to most, with 0.4% of flights landing 3 or more hours late.
That works out at about 250 flights a year crossing the 3-hour line, which is the point the airline has to pay.
Flying home rather than out?
Coming back from Portugal it's €250 or €400 rather than £220 or £350, because departures from there fall under the EU version of the rules.
When is it worst?
July 2025, when flights between the UK and Portugal ran an average of 21.2 minutes late.
See all the numbers for Portugal
In the last 12 months, 62,453 flights operated between the UK and Portugal: 72.3% ran within 15 minutes of schedule, and 0.4% were 3 or more hours late, roughly 250 flights' worth of eligible passengers in a year. The CAA's figures don't separate arrivals from departures, so this covers the corridor both ways.
Flights are landing on time more often than last year: 72.3% ran on time against 66.8% in the twelve months before, and the average delay fell from 18.8 to 15.2 minutes.
Flights (12mo)
62,453
On time
72.3%
▲ 5.5pts vs last year
Avg delay
15.2 min
▼ 3.6 min vs last year
3 hours or more late
0.4%
Cancelled
0.8%
Portugal, month by month
Worst month: July 2025, averaging 21.2 minutes.
Busiest routes between the UK and Portugal
| UK airport | Destination | 3 hours or more pays |
|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | Lisbon | £350each |
| Gatwick | Faro | £350each |
| Gatwick | Lisbon | £350each |
| Gatwick | Oporto (Portugal) | £220each |
| Manchester | Faro | £350each |
| Stansted | Faro | £350each |
| Manchester | Lisbon | £350each |
| Stansted | Lisbon | £350each |
| Bristol | Faro | £350each |
| Luton | Faro | £350each |
| Stansted | Oporto (Portugal) | £220each |
| Gatwick | Funchal | £350each |
| Luton | Lisbon | £350each |
| Birmingham | Faro | £350each |
| Belfast International | Faro | £350each |
Where you fly from
UK airports flying to Portugal
| Airport | 3 hours or more late | Landed on time |
|---|---|---|
| Gatwick | 0.5% | 69.6% |
| Heathrow | 0.2% | 69.6% |
| Stansted | 0.5% | 72.8% |
| Manchester | 0.6% | 62.7% |
| Luton | 0.2% | 67.7% |
| Bristol | 0.3% | 74.6% |
| Birmingham | 0.7% | 73.1% |
| Edinburgh | 0.4% | 72.1% |
| Liverpool (John Lennon) | 0.2% | 87.7% |
| Belfast International | 0.2% | 87.5% |
| Leeds Bradford | 0.6% | 77.9% |
| East Midlands International | 0.1% | 85.6% |
| Glasgow | 0.5% | 85.0% |
| Newcastle | 0.1% | 85.8% |
| Bournemouth | 0.1% | 80.2% |
| Southend | <0.5% | 75.3% |
| London City | <0.5% | 78.8% |
| Aberdeen | 1.1% | 90.3% |
| Cardiff Wales | 2.4% | 91.8% |
| Teesside International Airport | <0.5% | 73.8% |
| Exeter | <0.5% | 88.1% |
| Southampton | 2.0% | 79.0% |
| Jersey | <0.5% | 78.1% |
Who flies there
Airlines flying between the UK and Portugal
| Airline | 3 hours or more late | Landed on time |
|---|---|---|
| easyJet | 0.4% | 71.5% |
| Ryanair | 0.4% | 73.6% |
| Jet2.com | 0.4% | 79.4% |
| Air Portugal | 0.2% | 62.3% |
| British Airways | 0.3% | 73.4% |
| Wizz Air | 1.2% | 64.9% |
| TUI Airways | 2.2% | 70.1% |
| BA CityFlyer | <0.5% | 77.2% |
| Europe Airpost | <0.5% | 77.6% |
Your rights
Your rights on this corridor
Every flight leaving the UK for Portugal is covered by UK law, whichever airline operates it. Flights the other way, landing in the UK from Portugal, are covered too if a UK or EU airline operated them; a return flight on a non-UK, non-EU carrier falls outside it, though the Montreal Convention and Portugal'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.
From our own tracking
Recent flights from Portugal that ran late
Every arrival into the airports we sweep that departed Portugal and ran 3 or more hours late, or was cancelled, since August. Newest first, and only flights UK or EU rules cover. A cancelled row carries no figure because what it pays turns on the notice you were given. Amounts are per person on the booking (half on the longest flights that landed 3 to 4 hours late). Airlines can still dispute a claim by proving the cause was outside their control, so check yours for the real answer.
Jet2
Faro → Birmingham Airport
6 Oct · 13:50 → 23:55
British Airways
Faro → London Heathrow Airport
6 Oct · 16:10 → 22:36
British Airways
Faro → London Heathrow Airport
6 Oct · 18:25
British Airways
Faro → London Heathrow Airport
5 Oct · 16:05
TAP Air Portugal
Lisbon → London Heathrow Airport
4 Oct · 12:45 → 16:42
British Airways
Lisbon → London Heathrow Airport
4 Oct · 10:20 → 14:11
TAP Air Portugal
Lisbon → London Heathrow Airport
4 Oct · 10:20 → 13:23
British Airways
Lisbon → London Heathrow Airport
4 Oct · 21:35
British Airways
Faro → London Heathrow Airport
3 Oct · 22:40
United Airlines
Lisbon → Newark Liberty International Airport
2 Oct · 13:20
United Airlines
Lisbon → Newark Liberty International Airport
30 Sept · 13:20
British Airways
Funchal → London Gatwick Airport
29 Sept · 16:00
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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. Methodology and limitations.