Flight delayed by 3 hours or more: what compensation can you claim?

Keep every receipt. The law is on your side.

The answer in 2 lines. If your flight reaches its final destination 3 hours or more late, the airline usually owes each passenger £220, £350 or £520 depending on distance, under the UK's version of the air passenger rights rules (UK261), unless the delay was caused by extraordinary circumstances. While you wait, it must also look after you: food and drink, and a hotel if you are stuck overnight. Claim from the airline that operated the flight, keep every receipt, and if it refuses or does not answer within 8 weeks, go to its dispute resolution scheme or the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

The first 3 steps

Keep everything: boarding pass, booking confirmation, the airline's messages, receipts for food, taxis or a hotel.
Note the real arrival time: what counts is when at least one aircraft door opens at the destination, not touchdown. A photo of the screen or your watch is enough.
Ask for the reason for the delay in writing, at the desk or through customer services: it decides whether compensation is due.

How much, and from when

Flight distance	Compensation per passenger	Arrival delay that triggers it
Up to 1,500 km (e.g. London to Paris, Dublin, Amsterdam)	£220	3 hours or more
1,500 to 3,500 km (e.g. Manchester to the Canaries, Greece or Turkey)	£350	3 hours or more
Over 3,500 km (e.g. London to New York or Dubai)	£520 (£260 if the delay is between 3 and 4 hours)	3 hours or more

What counts is the delay at your final destination, not the delay at departure. For connecting flights booked on one ticket, count the delay on arrival of the last flight and the total distance.

Which flights are covered

Any flight departing from a UK airport, whatever the airline.
Flights arriving in the UK from the EU on a UK airline.
Flights arriving in the UK from outside the UK and EU on a UK or EU airline.
Flights departing from an EU airport are covered by the EU's own rules (EU261, paid in euros).
A flight into the UK from outside the UK and EU on a non-UK, non-EU airline (for example, a US or Gulf airline flying into London) is not covered: check that airline's own conditions of carriage.

While you wait: the right to care

From a 2-hour delay at departure (flights up to 1,500 km), 3 hours (1,500 to 3,500 km) or 4 hours (longer flights): food and drink in proportion to the wait, and a way to make calls or send emails.
If departure moves to the next day: a hotel and transport between the airport and the hotel.
If the airline provides nothing, pay for reasonable costs yourself and keep the receipts: you can claim them back. Not champagne, not a five-star hotel.
From a 5-hour delay, you can choose not to travel and get your ticket refunded (and a flight back to where you started if you were mid-journey).
The right to care applies even when the cause is extraordinary and no compensation is owed.

What not to do

Accepting a voucher on the spot without reading it: you may be giving up cash compensation.
Throwing away food, taxi or hotel receipts: no receipt, no refund.
Signing up with a claims company before trying yourself: claiming directly is free, and they take a share of what you get.

When the airline can refuse to pay

Extraordinary circumstances that it could not have avoided even with all reasonable measures: dangerous weather, air traffic control restrictions or strikes, security risks, airport closures, bird strikes. After the air traffic control (NATS) failures of 8 and 21 September 2026, the CAA published statements on passenger compensation (8 September, 21 September): check them if your flight was affected. Air traffic control failures are usually treated as extraordinary, but the right to care still applies.
An ordinary technical fault or a strike by the airline's own staff are generally not extraordinary: compensation is still due.
It is up to the airline to show the circumstance was extraordinary.

How to claim, and where to go if refused

1. Claim from the airline that operated the flight (the one named on the boarding pass as "operated by"), even if you booked through an agent or a package holiday. Use its online claim form, or write and keep a copy.
2. No answer within 8 weeks, or you disagree: if the airline belongs to an approved dispute resolution (ADR) scheme, such as AviationADR or CEDR, take it there. It is free for you and the decision binds the airline if you accept it. The CAA's ADR page lists which scheme each airline uses.
3. The airline is not in a scheme: use the CAA's complaint service for airlines (free). The CAA can look at your case but cannot force the airline to pay.
4. Last resort: the small claims court.

Good to know

Compensation does not depend on the ticket price: a £30 ticket can mean £220.
It is owed per passenger, including children with their own ticket.
The rules may change: the Civil Aviation (Consumer Protection and Regulatory Reform) Bill was still going through Parliament on 1 November 2026, and Which? has criticised government plans that could cut payouts. Nothing has changed yet: the UK261 amounts above still apply. The CAA's delays page is updated when the rules change.
For connections, a single ticket protects you better than two separate bookings.

Aisha was due to land in Malaga at 2pm. Her flight from Birmingham has a technical fault and she arrives at 5.40pm. She photographs the time as the doors open and keeps her receipt for a sandwich. Back home, she fills in the airline's claim form: about 1,900 km, so she asks for £350 plus the cost of the sandwich. Eight weeks later, with no answer, she takes her claim to the airline's ADR scheme.

A made-up story, for illustration.

Bobby

Sources, verification, confidence

Verified on 1 November 2026, for England. Confidence: high for the amounts, delay thresholds and right to care under UK261 as published by the CAA; medium for what counts as an extraordinary circumstance, which is judged case by case; low on the content and timing of any future reform, which was still before Parliament on 1 November 2026. We found no recent official figure for the number of passengers compensated, so we give none. This guide is information, not legal advice.