UK261 explained

UK261 is the law that makes airlines pay a fixed sum when your flight arrives 3 hours or more late, is cancelled at short notice, or you are bumped. Here is when it applies.

Checked against official sources on 16 October 2026

In short

UK261 covers every flight leaving a UK airport, and flights into the UK on a UK or EU airline.
You can be owed £220, £350 or £520 per passenger, depending on the flight distance and how late you arrived.
The delay that counts is at your final destination, and it must be 3 hours or more.
The airline does not have to pay if it proves “extraordinary circumstances” caused the problem.

What UK261 is

UK261 is the UK’s version of the EU air passenger rights regulation, Regulation (EC) No 261/2004. The UK kept the rules after it left the EU, with the amounts changed to pounds. It sets out what airlines owe you when a flight is delayed, cancelled or overbooked.

The EU still has its own version, EU261, which uses euros. Your flight may be covered by one, both or neither, depending on where it left from and which airline operated it.

Which flights are covered

What matters is where the flight left from, where it landed, and where the operating airline is licensed. The operating airline is the one that flew the plane, which is not always the one you booked with. Your booking confirmation usually shows it on an “operated by” line.

Flights covered by UK261
Your flight	Covered by UK261?
Leaving a UK airport, to anywhere	Yes, on any airline
Arriving in the UK from an EU country	Yes, on a UK or EU airline
Arriving in the UK from outside the EU	Yes, on a UK or EU airline
Arriving in an EU country from outside the EU and UK	Only on a UK airline (EU261 covers EU airlines)
Between two airports outside the UK and EU	No

For flights into the UK, UK261 does not apply if you have already received compensation or assistance under another country’s law for the same disruption.

You also need:

A confirmed booking. Frequent flyer reward tickets count. Free or discounted tickets that are not available to the public, such as staff travel, do not.
To have checked in on time. That means by the time the airline gave you in writing or, if it gave none, at least 45 minutes before the published departure time. This does not apply if your flight was cancelled.

How the delay is counted

The law gives compensation for “a delay of three hours or more in reaching the final destination”. Two things follow from that:

It is your arrival time that counts, not your departure time. A flight that leaves 3 hours late but makes up time in the air, and lands 2 hours 50 minutes late, does not qualify.
Connecting flights on one booking count as one journey. If a late first flight makes you miss your connection and you reach your final destination 3 hours or more late, the delay at the end is what counts.

What you can be owed

The amount depends on the distance of the flight and how late you arrived. It does not depend on what you paid for the ticket.

Flights of 1,500 km or less: £220.
Flights of 1,500 to 3,500 km: £350.
Flights over 3,500 km: £520, or £260 if you arrived between 3 and 4 hours late.

The amount is per passenger. Our compensation amounts guide has the full UK and EU tables, including when an airline can halve the payment.

Compensation is paid as money: cash, bank transfer or cheque. An airline can pay in vouchers only if you agree in writing, so you can say no. The law also says an airline cannot get you to waive these rights, even through its terms and conditions.

Other rights that apply whatever the cause

Compensation is only one part of UK261. While you wait, the airline must also give you food, drink and a way to make contact and, if the delay runs overnight, a hotel and transport to it. After a delay of 5 hours or more you can choose not to travel and get your money back. These rights apply even when the cause was outside the airline’s control. See your rights during a delay and cancelled flights.

When the airline can refuse to pay

An airline does not have to pay compensation if it can prove the delay or cancellation was caused by extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even if it had taken all reasonable measures. Bad weather, air traffic control restrictions and security alerts can count. Most technical faults and strikes by the airline’s own staff do not. Our guide to extraordinary circumstances explains what usually counts.

What about the new EU rules?

The EU has adopted revised passenger rights rules, Regulation (EU) 2026/2202. The European Commission says they keep the 3-hour threshold and the current amounts, and apply 12 months after publication, so today’s EU rules still apply for now (Commission Q&A). The EU changes do not alter UK261, which is UK law.