How much compensation for a delayed American Airlines flight?
£520 each, if you land 3 hours or more late
Check your flight
FreePick your airports and the date you flew. We'll list every flight on that route that day.
A few quick questions. No personal details needed.
American Airlines is one of the 10 worst of the 80 airlines flying at UK airports for 3-hour delays.
- Flights a year
- 15,514
- Landed on time
- 74.1%
- Land 3 hrs or more late
- 279a year
Last 12 months, CAA data
What you're owed
Every American Airlines route we hold a distance for falls in the same band, so that is the figure. About 279 American Airlines flights a year cross that line.
What it pays
Pick the airport you flew from
American Airlines flies from 2 UK airports, so there is no single distance and no single figure. Open the one you flew from and every destination is priced.
Watch my flight
Flying soon? We'll watch your flight
If it lands 3 hours or more late we email you what you're owed.
How bad is it
Does American Airlines get delayed a lot?
Yes, more than most. It's one of the 10 worst of the 80 airlines flying at UK airports, with about 1 flight in 55 landing 3 or more hours late (1.8%).
That works out at about 279 flights a year crossing the 3-hour line, which is the point the airline has to pay.
When is it worst?
December 2025, when American Airlines flights ran an average of 29.8 minutes late.
See all the numbers for American Airlines
In the last 12 months, American Airlines operated 15,514 flights at UK airports, and 1.8% were 3 or more hours late, the threshold where £520 each becomes payable.
Flights are landing on time less often than last year: 74.1% ran on time against 74.2% in the twelve months before, and the average delay fell from 27.9 to 21.4 minutes.
| American Airlines, last 12 months | Figure | vs year before |
|---|---|---|
| Flights at UK airports | 15,514 | was 15,851 |
| Ran on time (within 15 min) | 74.1% | ▼ was 74.2% |
| Average delay | 21.4 min | ▼ was 27.9 min |
| 3 hours or more late (the line where they pay) | 1.8% | - |
| Cancelled | 3.2% | - |
| Flights 3 hours or more late (a year) | 279 flights/year | - |
The CAA's figures combine arrivals and departures, so this covers both directions of travel.
American Airlines' delays, month by month
Worst month: December 2025, averaging 29.8 minutes.
Where it flies
American Airlines at each UK airport
From our own tracking
Recent American Airlines flights we logged running late
Every American Airlines arrival we logged running 3 or more hours late, or cancelled, at the airports we sweep since August. Newest first, and only flights UK or EU rules cover. A cancelled row carries no figure because what it pays turns on the notice you were given. Amounts are per person on the booking (half on the longest flights that landed 3 to 4 hours late). Airlines can still dispute a claim by proving the cause was outside their control, so check yours for the real answer. We earn a fee if you claim through a Claim link.
American Airlines
Madrid → John F. Kennedy International Airport
6 Oct · 14:20 → 20:21
American Airlines
Madrid → John F. Kennedy International Airport
5 Oct · 14:40 → 20:32
American Airlines
Madrid → John F. Kennedy International Airport
3 Oct · 12:25 → 18:26
American Airlines
London → John F. Kennedy International Airport
23 Sept · 13:30
American Airlines
London → John F. Kennedy International Airport
21 Sept · 13:30
American Airlines
Paris → John F. Kennedy International Airport
9 Sept · 14:30
American Airlines
London → John F. Kennedy International Airport
8 Sept · 21:05 → 00:44
American Airlines
London → John F. Kennedy International Airport
8 Sept · 16:59
American Airlines
Edinburgh → John F. Kennedy International Airport
2 Sept · 12:59
American Airlines
Edinburgh → John F. Kennedy International Airport
30 Aug · 12:59 → 17:47
American Airlines
London → John F. Kennedy International Airport
27 Aug · 13:20 → 17:25
American Airlines
Rome → John F. Kennedy International Airport
23 Aug · 14:35
American Airlines
Edinburgh → John F. Kennedy International Airport
21 Aug · 12:59 → 16:57
American Airlines
Barcelona → John F. Kennedy International Airport
18 Aug · 16:10
Yours in the list? Check it free and we'll tell you what the airline owes you.
How to claim
Claiming from American Airlines
Airlines rarely pay compensation on their own. Nothing happens until someone claims, and plenty of first claims come back refused when the airline blames something outside its control.
The rules do not change with the airline. What decides your claim is where the flight took off and how late it landed, not whose aircraft it was.
Your rights
What the rules turn on
Where the flight departed decides everything, not the airline's nationality. Anything leaving a UK airport is covered by UK261 whoever operates it, and anything leaving the EU by EU261. A delay of 3 or more hours on arrival pays £520 each on the distances American Airlines flies, when the cause was within the airline's control, which covers technical faults, crew shortages and the knock-on from a late inbound aircraft. It pays nothing when the cause was genuinely extraordinary, though airlines stretch that word further than the case law supports, so a refusal on those grounds is worth testing rather than accepting.
Other airlines
Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority punctuality statistics, July 2025 to June 2026. Analysis by CheckFlightCompensation; the CAA is credited as the data source as its publication conditions require. Figures cover the 25 largest UK airports. Methodology and limitations.