Flights between the UK and Saudi Arabia: what a delay is worth
Every route the CAA tracks between the UK and Saudi Arabia 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 Saudi Arabia instead and the airline was a UK or EU carrier). Find your route below.
| Route | 3h+ delay pays |
|---|---|
| Heathrow → Riyadh | £520 |
| Heathrow → Jeddah | £520 |
| Gatwick → Jeddah | £520 |
| Manchester → Jeddah | £520 |
| Gatwick → Medina | £520 |
| Birmingham → Jeddah | £520 |
| Heathrow → Dammam | £520 |
| Gatwick → Neom Bay | £520 |
All 8 tracked UK ↔ Saudi Arabia routes, sorted by yearly flight volume. Figures are per passenger under UK261; EU261 pays €600 for the same band.
In the last 12 months, 8,190 flights operated between the UK and Saudi Arabia: 71.1% ran within 15 minutes of schedule, and 1.1% were 3 or more hours late, roughly 90 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: 71.1% of flights ran on time against 73.5% in the twelve months before, and the average delay rose from 17.6 to 18.8 minutes.
Flights (12mo)
8,190
On time
71.1%
▼ 2.4pts vs last year
Avg delay
18.8 min
▲ 1.2 min vs last year
3h+ delayed
1.1%
Cancelled
2.8%
Saudi Arabia, month by month
Worst month: March 2026, averaging 29.9 minutes.
Busiest routes between the UK and Saudi Arabia
| UK airport | Destination | 3h+ delay pays |
|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | Riyadh | £520 |
| Heathrow | Jeddah | £520 |
| Gatwick | Jeddah | £520 |
| Manchester | Jeddah | £520 |
| Gatwick | Medina | £520 |
| Birmingham | Jeddah | £520 |
| Heathrow | Dammam | £520 |
| Gatwick | Neom Bay | £520 |
UK airports flying to Saudi Arabia
| Airport | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | 1.1% | 75.0% |
| Gatwick | 1.3% | 57.3% |
| Manchester | 0.7% | 67.4% |
| Birmingham | 1.7% | 68.9% |
Airlines flying between the UK and Saudi Arabia
| Airline | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| Saudi Arabian Airlines | 1.4% | 71.0% |
| British Airways | 0.1% | 79.1% |
| Wizz Air | 1.4% | 53.9% |
| Virgin Atlantic | 0.4% | 80.7% |
| Riyadh Air | 0.7% | 83.6% |
| Gulf Air | 3.2% | 49.6% |
Your rights on this route
Every flight leaving the UK for Saudi Arabia is covered by UK261, whichever airline operates it. Flights the other way, landing in the UK from Saudi Arabia, 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 Saudi Arabia'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.