UK261, explained: how much your delayed flight is actually worth
If you’ve ever stared at a delayed departures board and wondered what the airline actually owes you, the answer is: a lot more than they’ll volunteer. UK261 — the regulation lifted from EU261 and kept on the UK statute books after Brexit — sets fixed compensation for delays, cancellations, and overbooking. It applies to any flight departing a UK airport, and to flights into the UK on a UK or EU carrier.
The numbers aren’t a percentage of your ticket. They’re flat amounts based on how far you were flying.
What you’re owed
| Flight distance | Compensation per passenger |
|---|---|
| Up to 1,500 km | £220 |
| 1,500–3,500 km | £350 |
| Over 3,500 km | £520 |
A £40 budget hop to Dublin and a £400 fare to Athens fall in the same bucket. The airline pays the same either way.
When it triggers
You’re owed compensation when all three of these are true:
- The disruption was the airline’s fault (or no-one’s clear fault).
- You arrived at your final destination 3 or more hours late, OR your flight was cancelled with less than 14 days’ notice, OR you were denied boarding due to overbooking.
- The flight was within the last 6 years.
Short delays (under 3 hours) don’t qualify under UK261, even if the airline caused them. The clock that matters is your arrival time, not the departure delay.
The “extraordinary circumstances” escape hatch
This is the line every airline reaches for first. Genuine extraordinary circumstances — severe weather at your destination, a security incident, certain ATC strikes — do exempt them. Most things they claim are extraordinary aren’t:
- Technical faults on the aircraft — not extraordinary.
- Crew sickness, crew shortages, crew running out of legal hours — not extraordinary.
- Knock-on delays from an earlier flight on the same plane — not extraordinary.
- Routine weather at the departure airport — usually not extraordinary.
If the airline cites “extraordinary circumstances” in a denial, ask them to be specific. Vague answers usually mean the excuse won’t hold up.
How to actually get paid
You can write to the airline yourself — many people do, and a chunk get paid. The rest get a denial letter, give up, and the airline keeps the money. That’s where we come in: we run the claim end to end, push back on bad denials, and only get paid when you do.
Check your flight — takes two minutes.