3.4 million UK passengers are owed up to £520 for a flight disruption

If you travelled through a UK airport last year, maybe you encountered some turbulence — and not just in the air. Our data shows that in 2024, a total of 145 million passengers took off from UK airports — and a staggering 1 in 3 them experienced a flight delay or cancellation.

While the entire year saw significant challenges for the aviation industry, July 2024 was an especially bad month for disruptions in the UK. Remember Crowdstrike? The mass IT outage grounded a significant number of flights, creating airport chaos not just in the UK, but across the globe.

But there's a silver lining for travellers who’ve had a flight disruption. 3.4 million UK passengers entitled to up to £520 in compensation thanks to the UK's passenger right protections.

Let's see what else our report reveals about flight disruptions in 2024:

Disruptions over time

The number of UK flights has grown every year since 2022, though last year that growth slowed a little, with just 30,000 more flights taking off than in 2023.

While flight disruptions are high, with 32% of passengers experiencing a delay or cancellation in 2024, it could be worse. In 2022 it was 36% of passengers!

We're keeping an eye on flight cancellations in the UK. Our data shows they are making up a greater proportion of flight disruptions. In 2022 4% of flight disruptions were a cancellation. Last year that was 9%.

Disruptions by month

The summer travel peak was unfortunately the peak time for flight disruptions too. July and August were the most popular months to fly, with 14.68 million passengers in July and 14.71 million passengers taking off from British airports in August.

And July was unfortunately also the worst month to fly in terms of flight disruptions. 6.46 million passengers had a flight delay or cancellation — which is 44% of all passengers that month!

The most disrupted day of the year was also in July, when 331,000, or 67%, of the 493,000 passengers flying out of the UK had a flight disruption.

Why? This was the 19th July, the first day of the Crowdstrike outage which took out the digital infrastructure of thousands of airports across the globe.

Most disrupted departure airports

So, which airports experienced the most disruptions this year?

The busiest UK airport by far is Heathrow Airport in London, with 42.71 million passengers taking off in 2024 alone. Around 32% of them had a disruption to their flight.

However, the UK's most disrupted airport overall is actually the 19th biggest airport, Cardiff, where 45% of passengers last year found their flight was disrupted.

Gatwick Airport had the most disruptions of the London airports. 38% of passengers in 2024 had a delay or cancellation. That amounts to more than 8.1 million passengers across the year.

As for the most punctual airport, that honour goes to Liverpool John Lennon Airport, where only 20% of the 2.41 million passengers had problems with their departure.

Busiest and most punctual routes

Where did everyone go? Unsurprisingly, the busiest routes of the year all departed from London Heathrow.

The most travelled route of all is to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. 1.6 million people took this route across the pond, 22% of them with a disruption.

Of the UK's 10 busiest routes, the most likely to be disrupted was London Heathrow to Dubai, where 40% of passengers were affected.

There are some eyebrow raising disruptions for passengers flying between London Gatwick and Bengaluru in India. Only 6% of flights departed on time.

Passengers wanting to travel between Cardiff and Gran Canaria fared about as bad. 92% of passengers had a flight disruption, over half down to flight cancellations.

If you want to practically guarantee you arrive on time, try flying from London Heathrow to Wuhan Airport in China. Just 3% of passengers had a flight disruption. But it is also a smaller route, with just 23,000 travellers in 2024.

Flight disruptions across Europe

So how did the UK stack up compared to our neighbours when it came to flight disruptions?

The UK had the fifth highest proportion of disrupted flights, behind Bulgaria, Germany, and Portugal. Greece had the worst flight disruptions: 37% of passengers had a delayed or cancelled flight there.

Getting compensation for passengers

With all of these flight disruptions, it’s only right that passengers should be properly compensated for all the lost time and stress. Globally, around 38 million passengers were owed compensation in 2024.

In the UK, 3.4 million disrupted passengers are — luckily — eligible for compensation according to UK 261. This means that they could be owed as much as £520 for a flight delay over 3 hours, a cancellation less than 14 days before departure, or an overbooked flight.

Flying to or from the UK and curious about your rights? Check our guide and be prepared the next time you experience a flight disruption.