# Exeter Airport delays and cancellations: UK261 rights Source: https://airtravelrights.com/airports/exeter/ > The operating airline pays UK261 compensation, not Exeter Airport. CAA 2025: 2.53% of Exeter flights were cancelled; 6,430 flights matched. # Exeter Airport: flight delay and cancellation rights The UK Civil Aviation Authority recorded 2.53% of Exeter Airport's flights as cancelled in 2025, with an average delay of 14.6 minutes across 6,430 matched flights. For a cancelled Exeter flight, the notice the airline gave decides whether compensation is owed. The operating airline carries every UK261 duty; the airport carries none. ## Which rules cover delayed and cancelled flights departing Exeter Airport? UK261 article 3(1)(a) treats a delayed Exeter departure and a cancelled one alike at this first step: both are covered because the flight was due to leave an airport in the United Kingdom. Article 3(5) sends every resulting duty to the operating airline, whichever carrier sold the ticket, and never to Exeter Airport. Arrivals depend on the operator's licence. Under article 3(1)(b)(i) a flight into Exeter from outside the UK is covered when a UK-licensed carrier such as Jet2 or an EU-licensed one such as TAP Air Portugal operates it, and not if you already received benefits or compensation and assistance in the departure country. A single booking with a connection counts as departing from its first leg (article 3(1A)). The return flight from an EU airport is a separate case: [EU261](https://airtravelrights.com/eu261/) covers any departure from a Member State, in euros, on any airline. Canada's [Air Passenger Protection Regulations](https://airtravelrights.com/canada-appr/) and US federal rules, which give [no compensation for a domestic delay](https://airtravelrights.com/us-dot/), are separate systems again, and the [which-law test](https://airtravelrights.com/which-law-covers-my-flight/) sorts a trip that crosses them. The [UK261 guide](https://airtravelrights.com/uk261/) covers the departure rules in full, and [Bournemouth](https://airtravelrights.com/airports/bournemouth/) and [Southampton](https://airtravelrights.com/airports/southampton/) appear with the other airports on the [UK airports index](https://airtravelrights.com/airports/). Before you complain, find the operating carrier on your booking confirmation. Source: UK261 art. 3(1)(a), 3(1)(b), 3(1A), 3(5) - legislation.gov.uk; EU261 art. 3(1)(a) - eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-15. ## When is a cancelled Exeter flight owed compensation? 14 days or more of notice before a cancelled Exeter flight means no compensation under UK261 article 5(1)(c)(i). Shorter notice can still mean none, if the airline offers a replacement that runs close enough to the original times, and under article 5(4) the airline must prove when it told you. Two windows set that tolerance. With seven to fourteen days' notice, nothing is owed if the replacement departs no more than 2 hours before the original time and arrives less than 4 hours after the scheduled arrival. With under seven days' notice, the limits tighten to 1 hour early and less than 2 hours late. Outside those limits compensation is due on the distance scale of £220, £350 or £520, which article 7(2) lets the airline halve where the re-routed arrival stays within 2, 3 or 4 hours of schedule. Whatever the notice, article 8(1) gives you a choice between a refund and re-routing to your final destination, and a refund must be paid within seven days. Extraordinary circumstances excuse only the fixed payment; the refund-or-re-routing choice survives them. A delay, rather than a cancellation, follows the three-hour arrival rule on the same scale, timed from when the doors open. Keep the message that told you of the cancellation, because its date sets the window ([refund or voucher](https://airtravelrights.com/uk261/cancelled-flight-refund-voucher/); [schedule changes](https://airtravelrights.com/uk261/flight-schedule-change/)). Source: UK261 art. 2(n), 5(1)(a)-(c), 5(3)-(4), 6(3), 7(1)-(2), 8(1) - legislation.gov.uk, checked 2026-09-15. ## How often were Exeter flights cancelled or late in 2025? Exeter Airport's 2025 record in the CAA file: 6,430 matched flights, a 2.53% cancellation share, and an average delay of 14.6 minutes. Measured against the CAA's on-time window, which stretches from 15 minutes early to 15 minutes late, 65.6% of flights made it. Within that window, 33.7% ran early and 31.9% ran up to 15 minutes late. Bournemouth, further east along the coast, cancelled 0.21% of its flights in the same year. The CAA counts a cancellation only when the flight is called off less than 24 hours before or after its scheduled departure, so a flight withdrawn a week or two ahead never enters the share. The file records no causes, so it cannot tell you how many Exeter passengers were owed money. A share built on 6,430 flights also moves visibly with a few cancellations. The CAA measures at the runway or gate, not at the door-opening UK261 uses, and its delay bands carry no legal meaning. It excludes all-cargo, oil-rig, air-taxi, positioning, private and military flights, and it accepts no liability for the data. For your own claim, the cancellation notice and its date are the evidence that counts. Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority, 2025 Annual Punctuality Statistics Summary Analysis - caa.co.uk, checked 2026-09-18. ## Where do you complain after a disrupted Exeter flight? 8 weeks without an answer from the airline lets an Exeter passenger take the complaint to AviationADR or CEDR, the two schemes the CAA approves, provided the operating airline has joined one. Both are free to the passenger, and a decision you accept binds the airline. Air France, KLM, Malta Air and Wizz Air are on the AviationADR list; British Airways, BA CityFlyer, Cathay Pacific and Scandinavian Airlines are on CEDR's. The scheme must receive your case within 12 months of the airline's final response, and it decides most cases within three months. For an airline on neither list, the CAA's Passenger Advice and Complaints Team may take the complaint up, though only as an opinion the airline is not bound to follow. Rejecting an ADR decision leaves court open. Exeter is in England, so the limitation period is six years under section 9 of the Limitation Act 1980, applied by UK261 article 3(9). Wales shares that England and Wales rule, so a [Cardiff](https://airtravelrights.com/airports/cardiff/) flight gets the same period. Send the airline your booking reference, the cancellation notice and the date you received it in one written complaint; if it refuses, [the refusal route](https://airtravelrights.com/airline-refused-compensation/) sets out what follows. Source: AviationADR, airline and airport members - aviationadr.org.uk; CEDR, Aviation - cedr-assist.com; CAA, Alternative dispute resolution and How the CAA can help - caa.co.uk; UK261 art. 3(9), Limitation Act 1980 s.9 - legislation.gov.uk, checked 2026-09-15. General information, not legal advice. For your specific case: the CAA or Citizens Advice. ## Sources - Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 as it forms part of UK law, arts. 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 - [legislation.gov.uk](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2004/261/contents), checked 2026-09-15. - Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, art. 3 - [eur-lex.europa.eu](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32004R0261), checked 2026-09-15. - Limitation Act 1980, s.9 - [legislation.gov.uk](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/58/section/9), checked 2026-09-15. - Civil Aviation Authority, Alternative dispute resolution - [caa.co.uk](https://www.caa.co.uk/air-passengers/travel-problems-and-rights/travel-complaints/alternative-dispute-resolution/), checked 2026-09-15. - Civil Aviation Authority, How the CAA can help - [caa.co.uk](https://www.caa.co.uk/air-passengers/travel-problems-and-rights/travel-complaints/how-the-caa-can-help/), checked 2026-09-15. - AviationADR, airline and airport members - [aviationadr.org.uk](https://www.aviationadr.org.uk/complaints-process/airline-and-airport-members-aviationadr/), checked 2026-09-15. - CEDR, Aviation - [cedr-assist.com](https://www.cedr-assist.com/consumer/aviation/overview/), checked 2026-09-15. - UK Civil Aviation Authority, 2025 Annual Punctuality Statistics Summary Analysis - [caa.co.uk](https://www.caa.co.uk/Documents/Download/24022/3d82eddc-84f7-4692-bc12-a9ab96562d04/1712), checked 2026-09-18.