The flight disruption radar: where flights went wrong
The flight disruption radar maps the money passengers can claim: every dot is an airport we monitor, and every pulse is compensation at stake there. The map reads our own tracking engine, so it shows live flight delays and cancellations we have actually recorded over the past week. The flights are observed; the compensation figures are statutory-ceiling estimates.
Compensation figures are statutory-ceiling estimates (typical seats × the amount the applicable passenger-rights law fixes per flight). Whether compensation is due on any individual claim depends on the cause of the disruption and the passenger's itinerary.
How do you read the flight disruption radar?
Flight trackers show you where aircraft are. This map shows where the money is. A dot marks an airport we monitor, and it pulses when we have recorded delays past three hours or cancellations there in the past week. The bigger the pulse, the more compensation is sitting unclaimed at that airport.
We size the pulse by entitlement rather than by traffic. One cancelled long-haul service can outweigh a dozen short delays, because the law values them that way.
| On the radar | What it means |
|---|---|
| A dot | One airport we monitor |
| A pulsing dot | We recorded delays past three hours or cancellations there in the past week |
| A bigger pulse | More compensation at stake there, sized by entitlement rather than traffic |
| A quiet dot | We recorded nothing qualifying there, which is not the same as nothing happening |
What can the radar not tell you about a delay?
The radar reads arrival times. It knows a flight landed four hours late; it does not know why, because no flight-data feed carries a reason. That gap is the whole argument in a claim. A storm and a crew shortage look identical from here and end in opposite places.
So treat a pulse as a prompt, not a verdict. The flight check reads your own flight’s record, which is where the reason finally appears.
How do you find your own flight from the map?
If your airport is lit, look for your flight in the lists rather than on the map. Delays today and cancellations today name individual services, and the seven-day disruption list goes wider.
For the numbers behind the map, including the panel we monitor and how we compute the amounts, see the disruption data page.
What do people ask about the disruption radar?
What does each dot on the radar mean?
One monitored airport. The dot pulses when we have recorded qualifying disruptions there in the current window, and it sits quiet when we have not. Size follows the compensation at stake rather than the number of flights, so one long-haul cancellation outweighs several short delays.
Is the radar showing live flight delays right now?
It shows the most recent sweep, which runs every fifteen to thirty minutes on the busiest airports and less often elsewhere. The map itself rebuilds every ten minutes. In practice a disruption reaches the radar within an hour of the aircraft landing.
My airport is quiet on the map but my flight was late. Why?
The radar covers a panel of monitored airports, not every airfield in Europe, and it only lights up for delays past the three-hour line. A quiet dot means we recorded nothing qualifying there, which is not the same as nothing happening.
Does a pulsing airport mean I have a claim?
It means money was at stake there, not that yours is owed. The radar reads arrival data, and arrival data never carries a reason. Whether your own flight pays turns on the cause of its disruption, which we check against that flight's own record.
Sources
- Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 — the regulation itself, in every EU language
- UK Civil Aviation Authority — passenger rights — the UK regulator's own guidance and complaint route