Flights between Birmingham and Malaga: what a delay is worth
Leaving Birmingham
£350 per passenger, UK261
Leaving Malaga
€400 per passenger, EU261
Malaga is in the EU, so this applies whichever airline you fly.
Either 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.
Birmingham and Malaga are 1,768 km apart (Over 1,500 to 3,500 km), and that distance is all that decides the amount. Which figure applies depends only on which end of the route you departed from, not which way you were travelling.
In the last 12 months, 2,294 flights operated between Birmingham and Malaga, and 0.6% were 3 or more hours late, the threshold where £350 per passenger becomes payable under UK261 (€400 under EU261).
Punctuality is up on last year: 70.7% of flights ran on time against 66.0% in the twelve months before, and the average delay fell from 20.3 to 16.6 minutes.
| Birmingham to Malaga, last 12 months | Figure | vs year before |
|---|---|---|
| Flights on this route | 2,294 | was 2,146 |
| Ran on time (within 15 min) | 70.7% | ▲ was 66.0% |
| Average delay | 16.6 min | ▼ was 20.3 min |
| 3h+ late (compensation threshold) | 0.6% | - |
| Cancelled | 0.0% | - |
| Flights 3h+ late (a year) | 14 flights/year | - |
The CAA's figures don't separate arrivals from departures, so this covers the route both ways.
Birmingham to Malaga, month by month
Worst month: August 2025, averaging 21.9 minutes.
Airlines flying this route
| Airline | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| Ryanair | 0.7% | 67.3% |
| Jet2.com | 0.5% | 75.9% |
| easyJet | 0.6% | 76.6% |
| TUI Airways | <0.5% | 62.1% |
Your rights on this route
Every flight leaving Birmingham for Malaga is covered by UK261, whichever airline operates it. Flights the other way, leaving Malaga for Birmingham, are covered too if a UK or EU airline operated them; a flight that way on a non-UK, non-EU carrier falls outside UK261, though the Montreal Convention 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. Flying somewhere else in Spain? See every route between the UK and Spain.
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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.