Flights between Manchester and Alicante: what a delay is worth
Leaving Manchester
£350 per passenger, UK261
Leaving Alicante
€400 per passenger, EU261
Alicante 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.
Manchester and Alicante are 1,681 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, 5,269 flights operated between Manchester and Alicante, and 0.5% were 3 or more hours late, the threshold where £350 per passenger becomes payable under UK261 (€400 under EU261).
Punctuality is down on last year: 61.6% of flights ran on time against 62.9% in the twelve months before, and the average delay fell from 22.5 to 20.8 minutes.
| Manchester to Alicante, last 12 months | Figure | vs year before |
|---|---|---|
| Flights on this route | 5,269 | was 5,244 |
| Ran on time (within 15 min) | 61.6% | ▼ was 62.9% |
| Average delay | 20.8 min | ▼ was 22.5 min |
| 3h+ late (compensation threshold) | 0.5% | - |
| Cancelled | 0.1% | - |
| Flights 3h+ late (a year) | 26 flights/year | - |
The CAA's figures don't separate arrivals from departures, so this covers the route both ways.
Manchester to Alicante, month by month
Worst month: September 2025, averaging 28.3 minutes.
Airlines flying this route
| Airline | 3h+ % | On-time % |
|---|---|---|
| Ryanair | 0.6% | 66.2% |
| easyJet | 0.3% | 64.8% |
| Jet2.com | 0.5% | 48.6% |
| TUI Airways | 1.4% | 50.5% |
Your rights on this route
Every flight leaving Manchester for Alicante is covered by UK261, whichever airline operates it. Flights the other way, leaving Alicante for Manchester, 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.