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How much compensation for a delayed Newcastle to Alicante flight?

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£350each if you land 3 hours or more late (€400 flying home from Spain)

This route is better than most of Britain's 200 busiest routes for 3-hour delays.

Flights a year
2,039
Distance apart
1,865 km
Land 3 hrs or more late
2a year

Last 12 months, CAA data

What you're owed

Leaving Newcastle

£350each under UK law

Leaving Alicante

€400each under EU law

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.

Newcastle and Alicante are 1,865 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.

How many were on the booking

£350 each. £1,400 for a family of four.

£350 just you
£700 two of you
£1,400 a family of four

Flying home from Alicante: €400, €800, €1,600. Everyone with their own seat is paid, children included.

What it pays

Every way a Newcastle to Alicante flight can pay you

Find the line that matches what happened to you. The money is the same whether you landed 3 hours late or 9, because it is the distance that sets the price, not the wait.

What you get What happened
£350each You landed 3 hours or more late Counted from when the doors opened at Alicante, not from when you left Newcastle. About 2 flights a year on this route land 3 hours or more late.
£350each plus your money back or a new flight Cancelled, and they told you less than 2 weeks before Count the days from when they told you to the day you were meant to fly. Found out at the airport? That counts. If they put you on another flight, this is still owed unless that flight left and landed close to your original times. About 4 flights a year on this route are cancelled.
£350each £175 if they get you there quickly They bumped you off a full flight This one is owed the moment it happens, before you fly, and the airline cannot make you take a voucher instead. It halves to £175 if the flight they put you on gets you there within 3 hours of your original arrival time.
£350each sometimes more You missed your next flight and got in 3 hours late Judged on when you reached your final stop, not on this leg. One ticket for the whole trip means the money is worked out on the whole trip, so a longer leg can pay more.
€400each You were flying home from Alicante Alicante is in the EU, so that direction is paid in euros. Same 3 hours, same landing rule, whichever airline you fly.
Your ticket money back They cancelled and you did not travel at all Paid in money within a week, not vouchers, and you get it whatever notice they gave you.
Food and drinks You waited 3 hours or more at the airport On a flight this far it starts at 3 hours, whatever caused the delay. Keep the receipts.
A hotel and a taxi You were stuck overnight The airline pays for the room and for getting to it. Keep the receipts.
Nothing A big storm or an air traffic hold stopped the flight Airlines blame the weather a lot and are often wrong, so it is still worth putting the flight in.

How close the replacement flight has to be before a cancellation stops paying.

How bad is this route

Does this route get delayed a lot?

No, less than most. It's better than most of Britain's 200 busiest routes, with about 1 flight in 1,000 landing 3 or more hours late (0.1%).

That works out at about 2 flights a year crossing the 3-hour line, which is the point the airline has to pay.

When is it worst?

September 2025, when flights on this route ran an average of 17 minutes late.

From our own tracking

Recent delays on this route

Every flight on this route we logged running 3 or more hours late, or cancelled, since August. Each row shows the direction it actually flew, and only flights UK or EU rules cover are listed, so you may see far more of one heading than the other. Amounts are per person on the booking (half on the longest flights that landed 3 to 4 hours late). Airlines can still dispute a claim by proving the cause was outside their control, so check yours for the real answer.

FR7494

Ryanair

7 hrs 46 min

Alicante → Newcastle International Airport

29 Sept · 00:15 → 08:01

Claim €400AD€400 each, minus the claim firm's success fee, typically 20-30% plus VAT.

FR7494

Ryanair

7 hrs 31 min

Alicante → Newcastle International Airport

6 Oct · 00:15 → 07:46

Claim €400AD€400 each, minus the claim firm's success fee, typically 20-30% plus VAT.

U25517

easyJet

Cancelled

Alicante → Newcastle International Airport

8 Sept · 19:45

Depends on the notice you got

Yours in the list? Check it free and we'll tell you what the airline owes you.

See all the numbers for this route

In the last 12 months, 2,039 flights operated between Newcastle and Alicante, and 0.1% were 3 or more hours late, the threshold where £350 each becomes payable under UK261 (€400 under EU261).

Flights are landing on time more often than last year: 76.8% ran on time against 75.1% in the twelve months before, and the average delay fell from 14.1 to 11.9 minutes.

Newcastle to Alicante, last 12 months
Newcastle to Alicante, last 12 months Figure vs year before
Flights on this route 2,039 was 1,835
Ran on time (within 15 min) 76.8% ▲ was 75.1%
Average delay 11.9 min ▼ was 14.1 min
3 hours or more late (the line where they pay) 0.1% -
Cancelled 0.2% -
Flights 3 hours or more late (a year) 2 flights/year -

The CAA's figures don't separate arrivals from departures, so this covers the route both ways.

Newcastle to Alicante, month by month

16.9m
14m
17m
12.3m
10.3m
5.7m
8.8m
5m
7.2m
8.1m
15.1m
14.6m
JulAugSepOctNovDecJanFebMarAprMayJun

Worst month: September 2025, averaging 17 minutes.

Airlines on this route

Airlines flying this route

Airline 3 hrs or
more late
Landed on time
Ryanair 0.1% 75.5%
Jet2.com <0.5% 81.3%
easyJet <0.5% 81.7%
TUI Airways 1.1% 61.5%

Your rights

Your rights on this route

Every flight leaving Newcastle for Alicante is covered by UK law, whichever airline operates it. Flights the other way, leaving Alicante for Newcastle, are covered too if a UK or EU airline operated them; a flight that way on a non-UK, non-EU carrier falls outside it, 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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Other routes from Newcastle

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Other routes to Alicante

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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. Methodology and limitations.