How much compensation for a delayed Stansted to Madrid flight?
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£220each if you land 3 hours or more late (€250 flying home from Spain)
This route is about average for Britain's 200 busiest routes for 3-hour delays.
- Flights a year
- 2,798
- Distance apart
- 1,300 km
- Land 3 hrs or more late
- 14a year
Last 12 months, CAA data
What you're owed
Leaving Stansted
£220each under UK law
Leaving Madrid
€250each under EU law
Madrid is in the EU, so this applies whichever airline you fly.
Either figure is payable only when the delay was within the airline's control. A technical fault, a crew shortage or a late inbound aircraft all count; genuinely extraordinary circumstances such as severe weather or an air traffic control restriction do not.
Stansted and Madrid are 1,300 km apart (1,500 km or less), and that distance is all that decides the amount. Which figure applies depends only on which end of the route you departed from, not which way you were travelling.
How many were on the booking
£220 each. £880 for a family of four.
Flying home from Madrid: €250, €500, €1,000. Everyone with their own seat is paid, children included.
What it pays
Every way a Stansted to Madrid flight can pay you
Find the line that matches what happened to you. The money is the same whether you landed 3 hours late or 9, because it is the distance that sets the price, not the wait.
How close the replacement flight has to be before a cancellation stops paying.
How bad is this route
Does this route get delayed a lot?
Not especially. It's about average for Britain's 200 busiest routes, with about 1 flight in 200 landing 3 or more hours late (0.5%).
That works out at about 14 flights a year crossing the 3-hour line, which is the point the airline has to pay.
When is it worst?
September 2025, when flights on this route ran an average of 40.8 minutes late.
From our own tracking
Recent delays on this route
Every flight on this route we logged running 3 or more hours late, or cancelled, since August. Each row shows the direction it actually flew, and only flights UK or EU rules cover are listed, so you may see far more of one heading than the other. 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.
Ryanair
Madrid → London Stansted Airport
17 Sept · 09:35 → 16:59
Yours in the list? Check it free and we'll tell you what the airline owes you.
See all the numbers for this route
In the last 12 months, 2,798 flights operated between Stansted and Madrid, and 0.5% were 3 or more hours late, the threshold where £220 each becomes payable under UK261 (€250 under EU261).
Flights are landing on time more often than last year: 61.7% ran on time against 59.5% in the twelve months before, and the average delay fell from 21.5 to 21.1 minutes.
| Stansted to Madrid, last 12 months | Figure | vs year before |
|---|---|---|
| Flights on this route | 2,798 | was 2,511 |
| Ran on time (within 15 min) | 61.7% | ▲ was 59.5% |
| Average delay | 21.1 min | ▼ was 21.5 min |
| 3 hours or more late (the line where they pay) | 0.5% | - |
| Cancelled | 0.0% | - |
| Flights 3 hours or more late (a year) | 14 flights/year | - |
The CAA's figures don't separate arrivals from departures, so this covers the route both ways.
Stansted to Madrid, month by month
Worst month: September 2025, averaging 40.8 minutes.
Airlines on this route
Airlines flying this route
| Airline | 3 hrs or more late3 hours or more late | Landed on time | If late |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ryanair | 0.5% | 61.7% | £220each |
Your rights
Your rights on this route
Every flight leaving Stansted for Madrid is covered by UK law, whichever airline operates it. Flights the other way, leaving Madrid for Stansted, are covered too if a UK or EU airline operated them; a flight that way on a non-UK, non-EU carrier falls outside it, though the Montreal Convention may still give you a claim. See the full breakdown on the 3-hour rule. Cancelled instead of delayed? Broadly the same amounts apply under different conditions. See cancelled flight compensation. Flying somewhere else in Spain? See every route between the UK and Spain.
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Other routes from Stansted
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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.