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Delayed on British Airways from Heathrow to Johannesburg?

£520each if you land 3 hours or more late

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Flights a year
1,439
Landed on time
76.7%
Land 3 hrs or more late
23a year

Last 12 months, CAA data

What you're owed

Leaving Heathrow

£520each under UK law

Leaving Johannesburg

£520each under UK law

Johannesburg is outside the UK and EU, so coming back this only applies if a UK or EU airline operated the flight.

Heathrow to Johannesburg is 9,044 km, which fixes the figure: £520 each leaving Heathrow, and the same £520 each coming back if a UK or EU airline operated the flight. It is per person, so four of you is £2,080.

How British Airways does on this route

Better or worse than the route itself?

Everyone flying Heathrow to Johannesburg hits the same airspace and the same two airports, so the honest question is not whether the route is busy, it is whether this airline handles it better or worse than the others on it.

On this route British Everyone
Landed on time 76.7% 80.6%
Average delay 21.1 min 16.4 min
Landed 3 hours or more late 1.6% 1.1%

British Airways flies 67% of this route, so the right-hand column is mostly its own flights being averaged back at it. The comparison that means something here is against the rest of its network.

Against its own network it is about the same as usual: British Airways lands on time 76.4% of the time across all 309,084 of its UK flights a year, against 76.7% here.

In money terms: about 23 flights a year on this route land 3 hours or more late, which is about 1 flight in 65. Everyone on board one of those is owed £520 each, so a full aircraft is a five-figure bill for British Airways.

Other airlines on this route

Same two airports, same 9,044 km, same £520.

Airline Landed on time
Virgin Atlantic 88.6%

Everything we hold on Heathrow to Johannesburg · British Airways across every UK airport

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.