The UK CAA publishes four delay-compensation figures, not three. Short-haul uses £220, medium-haul £350, and long-haul splits into £260 or £520 depending on whether you arrive three-to-four hours late or more than four hours late. This page is a free educational check so you can write to the airline yourself.
Educational estimate. Not a law firm. Not a guarantee of payment.
£220 under 1,500 km£350 at 1,500–3,500 km£260 long-haul 3–4h£520 long-haul 4h+
More than 1,500 km inside the EU/EEA, or other flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km
€400 per passenger
EU261
More than 3,500 km outside that shorter band
€600 per passenger
EU261 long-haul reroute
Arrives 3–4 hours late after a replacement
50% reduction (€300)
UK261
Under 1,500 km, arrives 3+ hours late
£220 per passenger
UK261
1,500–3,500 km, arrives 3+ hours late
£350 per passenger
UK261
Over 3,500 km, arrives 3–4 hours late
£260 per passenger
UK261
Over 3,500 km, arrives 4+ hours late
£520 per passenger
U.S. DOT
Refunds and involuntary denied boarding — not a fixed delay cash table
No EU/UK-style delay band
Amounts are official reference bands, not a payout promise. Coverage, final arrival, notice, rerouting and extraordinary circumstances still decide the case.
Coverage is not a London pin on a map.
UK261 is the retained UK passenger-rights framework. A departure from the United Kingdom is the usual starting point. An inbound flight can also require the operating carrier to be a UK airline. Marketing brands, ticket sellers and codeshare partners are not enough. Enter the airline that actually flew the disrupted sector. A Heathrow or Gatwick arrival by itself does not create a £520 result.
Distance uses great-circle kilometres between origin and final ticketed destination, which is how the CAA examples are framed: Glasgow to Amsterdam as under 1,500 km, East Midlands to Marrakesh as 1,500–3,500 km, London to New York as over 3,500 km. Connections still matter when they sit on one booking, because the delay that counts is arrival at the last ticketed airport, not the first delayed take-off.
Three hours is the usual cash threshold. Care is separate.
Statutory compensation is typically assessed when you reach the final destination three hours or more late. That clock is not the same as a departure delay shown on a departure board. A flight that leaves 90 minutes late can still miss a connection and arrive four hours late; the reverse can also be true. Record scheduled arrival, actual arrival, and any replacement the airline offered.
Care while waiting — reasonable meals, communications, hotels and local transport — can apply at shorter delays than the compensation threshold. A five-hour delay can open a refund-instead-of-travel question even where compensation is disputed. Keep receipts. Ask the airline to address care, refund and compensation as three different questions in writing.
Worked examples, not payouts
How the four CAA rows behave on real UK routes.
Short-haul · £220
Edinburgh to Amsterdam, one booking, arrives 3 hours 10 minutes late. If coverage and cause hold, the working band is £220 per passenger. A two-hour arrival would not cross the usual compensation threshold even if meals were due.
Medium-haul · £350
Manchester to Istanbul, 1,500–3,500 km, arrives 3 hours 40 minutes late. The CAA medium-haul figure is £350. Extraordinary circumstances, notice and the airline’s written reason still sit on top of that band.
Long-haul · £260 or £520
London Heathrow to New York JFK on a UK carrier. Arrive 3 hours 30 minutes late and the CAA long-haul row is £260. Arrive 4 hours 20 minutes late and it is £520. That split is why a compressed “£260–£520” cell is not enough.
None of those sketches is a payment decision. The calculator still needs the operating carrier, whether the itinerary was one booking, cancellation notice if the flight was cancelled, and the cause the airline recorded. A technical fault is not automatically extraordinary under UK and EU guidance; weather, air-traffic-control decisions and some strikes outside the airline’s control can be. Ask for the written reason.
Time limits: England and Wales six years is not a countdown.
EU261 does not set one Union-wide court deadline; national law does. For UK-connected claims, a six-year limitation period is commonly cited in England and Wales for contractual claims. Scotland and Northern Ireland can use different clocks. This website does not start, pause or calculate remaining days. Preserve the booking, notices, final-arrival evidence and receipts from the day of the disruption, write to the airline promptly, and read the time-limits guide before treating any date as a legal deadline.
Claim it yourself. Keep 100% if the airline pays.
Claim companies advertise that they will chase the airline for a success fee. You do not have to use one. FlightRefundCalc is an independent educational site: it does not file claims, hold money or take a percentage. Run the calculator, keep your evidence, send the free letter through the airline’s official channel, then wait. If there is no useful reply after eight weeks, the CAA explains Alternative Dispute Resolution where the airline is a member, or the Passenger Advice and Complaints Team (PACT) where it is not. PACT cannot impose a binding outcome.
An optional AirHelp referral can appear after a qualifying estimate. Its published fee is 35% of compensation including VAT, and can reach about 50% if legal action is needed. That path is never required to see a band or download a letter. Follow the claim-yourself steps if you want to keep the full statutory amount.
The four rows on this page follow the Civil Aviation Authority’s public delay guidance, last aligned here on the legal-review date below. If a fact is disputed, the airline’s written response and the current CAA page are the sources to reopen. This site is not a law firm, not a claims company and not a registered company.
Delay, cancellation and denied boarding are different UK261 questions.
A delay uses final-arrival hours. A cancellation uses how much notice you received and whether a replacement was offered. Denied boarding asks whether you volunteered a seat or were refused one. Do not paste a delay band onto a cancellation, or a denied-boarding volunteer agreement onto an involuntary refusal. The calculator asks those facts on later steps; this page is only the UK delay-band table and coverage reminder.
If the airline cancelled and rebooked you, the relevant arrival is the replacement’s actual arrival at the last ticketed airport. If you refused an alternative and no longer wished to travel, refund and care questions can sit beside, or instead of, a compensation band. Write those choices down before you send the letter so the airline is not guessing.
Extraordinary circumstances are a reason to request, not a passenger conclusion.
Airlines sometimes refuse the cash band by pointing to weather, air-traffic control, security, political instability or a strike they say they could not control. Official UK and EU material treats that as a defence the airline must explain. A routine technical fault or poor maintenance is not automatically extraordinary. Care, refund and rerouting can remain even when compensation is disputed.
Ask the airline, in writing, to name the event, say why it could not reasonably have been avoided, and describe the measures taken. Keep that letter with the journey record. The extraordinary-circumstances guide is the longer fact-check; this landing page will not decide the defence for you.
What the free calculator does with a UK itinerary.
Enter the operating airline, origin, final destination and delay hours. Optional scheduled versus actual arrival clocks can fill the delay for you. Flight-number live lookup exists on the server but stays off unless the owner enables it with a provider key; if it is off, type the hours yourself. The result separates coverage, a conditional band, care, refund or reroute, and the facts that still decide the case. It does not file a claim, email British Airways, or move money.
A Doha or Dubai departure that merely lands at Heathrow is not automatically UK261. A UK carrier flying into the UK from outside can be. That is why the coverage test asks who operated the flight. If the calculator shows no EU or UK band, you may still have a refund, a hotel, or an airline-terms question. Use the letter to ask, and keep the framework guides beside the result.
Common UK compensation questions
How much is UK flight delay compensation?+
Where a qualifying UK261 path applies, the UK CAA lists £220 (under 1,500 km), £350 (1,500–3,500 km), £260 (over 3,500 km arriving 3–4 hours late) and £520 (over 3,500 km arriving more than four hours late). Coverage, the three-hour final-arrival rule, notice, rerouting and extraordinary circumstances still decide the case. This is a preliminary band, not a payout.
Why is long-haul sometimes £260 instead of £520?+
The CAA splits the over-3,500 km band by how late you arrive at the final destination. A qualifying arrival between three and four hours late uses £260 per passenger. More than four hours late uses £520. The calculator applies that split from the delay hours you enter.
Do I need a claim company to get UK261 compensation?+
No. You can write to the operating airline yourself with the free letter and keep 100% if the airline pays. An optional AirHelp referral, where shown, may charge 35% including VAT, or about 50% if legal action is needed. FlightRefundCalc charges no fee and does not file the claim.
How long do I have to claim a UK flight delay?+
There is no single EU-style countdown on this site. In England and Wales a six-year limitation period is commonly cited for contractual claims; Scotland and Northern Ireland can differ. This page does not calculate remaining days. Preserve evidence and write to the airline promptly.
Does landing in the UK automatically mean UK261?+
No. A UK departure is the usual starting point. An inbound journey can also require the operating carrier’s UK status to be checked. A London arrival alone is not a fixed cash result.
Last legal review: 29 August 2026. FlightRefundCalc is an independent educational website. It is not a law firm, claims company, or registered company. Contact: feroz@flightrefundcalc.com. Amounts are official reference bands. Coverage, final arrival, notice, rerouting and extraordinary circumstances still decide the case.