Flights between the UK and South Africa: what a delay is worth
Every route the CAA tracks between the UK and South Africa 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 South Africa instead and the airline was a UK or EU carrier). Find your route below.
| Route | 3h+ delay pays |
|---|---|
| Heathrow → Johannesburg | £520 |
| Heathrow → Cape Town | £520 |
| Gatwick → Cape Town | £520 |
All 3 tracked UK ↔ South Africa routes, sorted by yearly flight volume. Figures are per passenger under UK261; EU261 pays €600 for the same band.
In the last 12 months, 3,960 flights operated between the UK and South Africa: 81.7% ran within 15 minutes of schedule, and 1.0% were 3 or more hours late, roughly 40 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: 81.7% of flights ran on time against 82.3% in the twelve months before, and the average delay rose from 15.2 to 15.3 minutes.
Flights (12mo)
3,960
On time
81.7%
▼ 0.6pts vs last year
Avg delay
15.3 min
▲ 0.1 min vs last year
3h+ delayed
1.0%
Cancelled
1.0%
South Africa, month by month
Worst month: July 2025, averaging 34.9 minutes.
Busiest routes between the UK and South Africa
UK airports flying to South Africa
Airlines flying between the UK and South Africa
| Airline | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| British Airways | 1.3% | 80.0% |
| Virgin Atlantic | 0.3% | 89.9% |
| Norse Atlantic UK | 1.4% | 65.7% |
Your rights on this route
Every flight leaving the UK for South Africa is covered by UK261, whichever airline operates it. Flights the other way, landing in the UK from South Africa, 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 South Africa'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 South Africa
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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.