Delayed on Virgin Atlantic from Heathrow to Johannesburg?
£520each if you land 3 hours or more late
Check your flight
FreePick the date you flew and we'll list every Heathrow to Johannesburg flight that day.
A few quick questions. No personal details needed.
- Flights a year
- 722
- Landed on time
- 88.6%
- Distance apart
- 9,044 km
Last 12 months, CAA data
What you're owed
Leaving Heathrow
£520each under UK law
Leaving Johannesburg
£520each under UK law
Johannesburg is outside the UK and EU, so coming back this only applies if a UK or EU airline operated the flight.
Heathrow to Johannesburg is 9,044 km, which fixes the figure: £520 each leaving Heathrow, and the same £520 each coming back if a UK or EU airline operated the flight. It is per person, so four of you is £2,080.
How Virgin Atlantic does on this route
Better or worse than the route itself?
Everyone flying Heathrow to Johannesburg hits the same airspace and the same two airports, so the honest question is not whether the route is busy, it is whether this airline handles it better or worse than the others on it.
On this route Virgin Atlantic is 8 points better than the other airlines flying it, and its average delay is 9.4 minutes shorter.
Against its own network it is 6.9 points better than usual: Virgin Atlantic lands on time 81.7% of the time across all 25,313 of its UK flights a year, against 88.6% here.
In money terms: about 1 flight a year on this route land 3 hours or more late, which is about 1 flight in 1,000. Everyone on board one of those is owed £520 each.
Other airlines on this route
Same two airports, same 9,044 km, same £520.
Everything we hold on Heathrow to Johannesburg · Virgin Atlantic across every UK airport
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.