# London Southend Airport delays: £220–£520 under UK261 Source: https://airtravelrights.com/airports/southend/ > The operating airline pays UK261 compensation, not the airport. CAA 2025: 70.5% of Southend''s 5,020 matched flights on time, average delay 12.4 minutes. # London Southend Airport: flight delay and cancellation rights London Southend Airport matched 5,020 flights in 2025 on the UK Civil Aviation Authority's count, with an average delay of 12.4 minutes. That is a small base, so its percentages move easily. Under UK261 the operating airline, not the airport, pays compensation, and the amount follows the distance to your final destination. ## Which rules cover delayed flights departing London Southend Airport? Every London Southend departure is a UK261 flight: article 3(1)(a) asks only whether the plane left an airport in the United Kingdom, and it did, whoever flies it. Article 3(5) then points at the operating carrier for care and compensation. London Southend Airport itself has no payment role at all. Inbound flights need a licence check instead. A flight into Southend from outside the UK is covered by article 3(1)(b)(i) when a UK air carrier such as Jet2 or a Community carrier such as Lufthansa operates it. A carrier with neither licence is outside UK261 on that flight, and the cover ends if you already received benefits or compensation and assistance in the departure country. For a connecting booking, article 3(1A) treats the whole trip as departing from its first leg's airport, and the same single-booking logic sets the distance band, as the next section shows. A departure from an EU airport is [EU261](https://airtravelrights.com/eu261/)'s case, paid in euros. Canada's [Air Passenger Protection Regulations](https://airtravelrights.com/canada-appr/) and US federal rules, which offer [no compensation for a domestic delay](https://airtravelrights.com/us-dot/), are separate; use the [which-law test](https://airtravelrights.com/which-law-covers-my-flight/) for a mixed booking and the [UK261 guide](https://airtravelrights.com/uk261/) for the full rules. [Stansted](https://airtravelrights.com/airports/stansted/), the other Essex airport, [London Luton](https://airtravelrights.com/airports/luton/) and the rest of the [UK airports index](https://airtravelrights.com/airports/) apply the same departure test. Your booking confirmation names the operating carrier; check it first. 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. ## How much is due for a delayed flight from London Southend Airport? £220, £350 or £520 per passenger is due under UK261 article 7(1) when a Southend flight reaches its final destination three hours or more late. Article 7(4) sets the band by the great-circle distance to that final destination on the whole booking, not by the length of the Southend leg. That rule changes the answer on a connecting trip. Take one booking from Southend to Málaga via Amsterdam: the first leg is 291 km, but the band follows Southend to Málaga, 1,706 km, so a three-hour arrival delay pays £350, not £220. A booking to Alicante, at 1,481 km, stays in the £220 band by 19 km. The three hours run to the moment passengers may leave the aircraft at that final destination (article 2(n)). Long bookings have a middle step: for more than 3,500 km, the CAA's delays page puts an arrival three to four hours late at £260, the halving article 7(2) permits, and more than four hours late at £520. Extraordinary circumstances excuse only the article 7 payment. Re-routing or refund under article 8 and care under article 9 continue, so meals and a hotel offered during the delay do not settle the fixed payment. Check the final destination on your booking confirmation and read the distance table in [the delay compensation guide](https://airtravelrights.com/uk261/flight-delay-compensation/). Source: UK261 art. 2(n), 5(3), 6(3)-(4), 7(1)-(2), 7(4), 8, 9 - legislation.gov.uk; CAA, Delays - caa.co.uk, checked 2026-09-15. ## How punctual was London Southend in 2025, and how much do its figures tell you? 5,020 flights at London Southend were matched in the CAA's 2025 statistics, a small base. 70.5% ran within the CAA's "on time" bands of 15 minutes early to 15 minutes late, the average delay was 12.4 minutes, and 0.26% of flights were cancelled. The on-time share splits into 44.9% early and 25.5% up to 15 minutes late. Stansted, the other Essex airport, matched 179,552 flights that year with an average delay of 16.3 minutes. On 5,020 flights, a few bad days can move Southend's percentages further than they would move a larger airport's, so one year's figure is weak evidence of a trend. None of it bears on a claim either. The CAA times flights at the runway or gate, while UK261 uses the door-opening at your destination, and CAA bands are not legal thresholds. Cargo, oil-rig, air-taxi, positioning, private and military flights are excluded, and the CAA accepts no liability for the data. Write down the time the doors open when you land; that figure, not the airport's average, decides a claim. 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 London Southend flight? 8 weeks without a reply lets you take a Southend complaint to AviationADR or CEDR if the operating airline belongs to one. If it belongs to neither, the CAA's Passenger Advice and Complaints Team (PACT) is the route, and PACT gives an opinion, not a binding decision. AviationADR's members include Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge, Buzz, Garuda Indonesia and Turkish Airlines; CEDR's include British Airways, BA CityFlyer, Cathay Pacific and Scandinavian Airlines. Jet2 and Loganair appear on none of the three lists the CAA, AviationADR and CEDR publish. The [London City](https://airtravelrights.com/airports/london-city/) page covers BA CityFlyer's CEDR route in more detail. PACT has gates. You must complain in writing to the airline first and either be unhappy with the answer or get no reply within eight weeks. It is only likely to take a case where the airline is outside approved ADR, and it will not handle a complaint with less than a year left to take legal action. If it thinks the complaint is valid, it takes it up with the airline, but it cannot impose a solution and there is no appeal against its view. In England the time to sue is six years under section 9 of the Limitation Act 1980, applied by UK261 article 3(9), so go to PACT well before the final year. If the airline still refuses, [the refusal route](https://airtravelrights.com/airline-refused-compensation/) sets out the next step, and [the ADR schemes page](https://airtravelrights.com/uk261/airline-adr-schemes/) lists members in full. Source: CAA, Alternative dispute resolution and How the CAA can help - caa.co.uk; AviationADR, airline and airport members - aviationadr.org.uk; CEDR, Aviation - cedr-assist.com; 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, 9 - [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. - Civil Aviation Authority, Delays - [caa.co.uk](https://www.caa.co.uk/air-passengers/travel-problems-and-rights/flight-delays-and-cancellations/delays/), 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.