Flights between the UK and South Korea: what a delay is worth
Every route the CAA tracks between the UK and South Korea 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 Korea instead and the airline was a UK or EU carrier). Find your route below.
| Route | 3h+ delay pays |
|---|---|
| Heathrow → Seoul (Incheon) | £520 |
All 1 tracked UK ↔ South Korea routes, sorted by yearly flight volume. Figures are per passenger under UK261; EU261 pays €600 for the same band.
In the last 12 months, 1,636 flights operated between the UK and South Korea: 66.8% ran within 15 minutes of schedule, and 0.1% were 3 or more hours late, roughly 2 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: 66.8% of flights ran on time against 61.8% in the twelve months before, and the average delay fell from 19.8 to 16 minutes.
Flights (12mo)
1,636
On time
66.8%
▲ 5.0pts vs last year
Avg delay
16 min
▼ 3.8 min vs last year
3h+ delayed
0.1%
Cancelled
0.1%
South Korea, month by month
Worst month: September 2025, averaging 33.6 minutes.
Busiest routes between the UK and South Korea
| UK airport | Destination | 3h+ delay pays |
|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | Seoul (Incheon) | £520 |
UK airports flying to South Korea
| Airport | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | 0.1% | 66.8% |
Airlines flying between the UK and South Korea
| Airline | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| Asiana Airlines | 0.1% | 55.9% |
| Korean Air | <0.5% | 73.2% |
| Virgin Atlantic | <0.5% | 86.1% |
Your rights on this route
Every flight leaving the UK for South Korea is covered by UK261, whichever airline operates it. Flights the other way, landing in the UK from South Korea, 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 Korea'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.