British Airways flight delay and cancellation compensation

British Airways flight delay and cancellation claims pay £220 to £520 under UK261, or €250 to €600 under EU261 on departures from the EU. You qualify if you land three or more hours late, or if BA cancels with under 14 days' notice. Business and First passengers receive the same figure as economy.

Does UK261 or EU261 cover a British Airways flight delay?

British Airways is the United Kingdom's flag carrier, based at Heathrow with a substantial Gatwick and London City operation and a long-haul network reaching every inhabited continent. Since the UK left the EU, BA is not an EU carrier, and that changes the map of your rights:

• UK261 — the retained UK version of the regulation — covers every departure from a UK airport, and every arrival into the UK on BA, including long-haul flights inbound from the US, Asia and Africa.
• EU261 covers BA departures from EU/EEA airports, because departure-side protection applies to any operating airline.
• EU261 does not cover a BA flight arriving into the EU from a non-EU country, since that limb requires an EU/EEA carrier. A New York to Madrid BA flight sits outside it; the same route on Iberia does not.

Codeshares follow the metal. If your ticket says BA but an American Airlines or Finnair aircraft operated the flight, the operating carrier's status is what counts.

How much compensation does British Airways owe for a long delay?

Fixed sums per passenger, set by distance, unaffected by cabin or fare:

• GBP 220 / EUR 250 — up to 1,500 km
• GBP 350 / EUR 400 — intra-EU routes over 1,500 km, and other routes of 1,500 to 3,500 km
• GBP 520 / EUR 600 — routes over 3,500 km, which covers most of the BA long-haul network

There is one important reduction. Under Article 7(2), where a long-haul flight arrives between three and four hours late the airline may pay half — GBP 260 or EUR 300. A four-hour-plus arrival delay on the same route restores the full amount, so the exact arrival time at the gate matters more than most passengers realise.

Business and First passengers receive the same figure as everyone in economy. Separately, if BA downgrades you, Article 10 requires reimbursement of 30, 50 or 75 per cent of the ticket price for that leg depending on distance — a distinct right from delay compensation.

Which excuses let British Airways avoid paying?

The defence is extraordinary circumstances: events outside the airline's actual control that could not have been avoided even with all reasonable measures. Severe weather, ATC restrictions and Heathrow slot or runway closures are the standard categories, along with security alerts and medical diversions.

What generally does not qualify:

• Routine technical faults discovered in the course of normal maintenance
• Crew shortages and rostering failures
• Industrial action by the airline's own staff, as opposed to third-party or ATC strikes
• Knock-on delays from an earlier rotation, unless the airline can trace them to a genuinely extraordinary root cause and show it minimised the effect

BA has to prove the defence. Passengers do not have to disprove it.

How do you build a claim against British Airways?

Keep the booking reference, boarding passes for every leg, and any email or app notification about the change. For a missed connection, note the actual arrival time at your final destination rather than the delay on the first sector — that is the figure the regulation uses.

Airlines commonly issue an automated acknowledgement and take longer over the decision, particularly after weather or IT events that generate large claim volumes. If BA refuses and the reasoning looks thin, UK claims can go to the CAA-approved alternative dispute resolution scheme the airline participates in, or to the small claims track; EU departures can be raised with the national enforcement body in the country of departure.

We prepare and run the claim from start to finish. The eligibility check is free and our fee is a fixed EUR 39, charged only when compensation is actually recovered.

If British Airways says no: CEDR

British Airways is a member of CEDR (the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution), one of the two aviation dispute schemes approved by the UK Civil Aviation Authority. If BA rejects your claim, or eight weeks pass without a final response, CEDR will adjudicate free of charge — and a decision you accept is binding on the airline. Claims on EU departures can also go to the enforcement body of the departure country.

How do you claim British Airways flight delay compensation?

Start with the flight itself. Our free flight check reads the recorded times for your British Airways flight and tells you which band it falls in, in about two minutes.

For the law behind the figure, the flight delay compensation guide covers arrival delays and the cancellation compensation guide covers a flight that never operated. If British Airways has already refused you, the case law summary sets out what the courts have said about the usual excuses.