Air India Delayed or Cancelled Your Flight? Here's Your UK261 Compensation

Air India runs some of the busiest routes between the UK and South Asia, with daily widebody services from Heathrow, Gatwick, and Birmingham to Delhi, Mumbai, and other Indian cities, serving one of the largest diaspora travel corridors in the country. As an Indian carrier with no EU or UK operating certificate, coverage depends heavily on which direction you were flying.

Which Air India flights are covered?

UK261 applies to any flight departing a UK airport, whatever airline operates it. An Air India flight leaving Heathrow for Delhi that lands 3+ hours late is covered. A flight arriving into the UK from India, on the other hand, is only covered under UK261 if it's operated by a UK or EU carrier, and Air India is neither. Delayed or cancelled Air India flights landing in the UK typically fall outside UK261 protection, however disruptive the journey was.

How much can you claim?

• £350 for flights 1,500-3,500km delayed 3+ hours
• £520 for flights over 3,500km delayed 4+ hours (the typical figure for London to Delhi or Mumbai)

Direct UK to India routes are comfortably long haul, so most qualifying claims land in the top compensation band.

Fleet age and technical delays

Air India has been modernising an older long-haul fleet, and technical faults and unscheduled maintenance have been a recurring cause of delays on its UK routes. As with any airline, this generally does not count as an extraordinary circumstance. Following the CJEU's ruling in Wallentin-Hermann v Alitalia, a technical problem only excuses the airline from paying if it stems from an event genuinely outside normal operations, and routine part failures or maintenance issues don't meet that bar. The airline still has to prove its case, not just assert "technical fault" in a rejection email.

Missed connections beyond Delhi or Mumbai

If your UK to India booking included a connecting domestic Air India flight to a smaller city, and both legs were on the same booking, the journey counts as one flight for compensation purposes. What decides your claim is your final arrival time at your ultimate destination, not how late the first leg into Delhi or Mumbai ran.

How far back can you claim?

You have 6 years to bring a claim in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and 5 years in Scotland, for any qualifying Air India flight departing the UK.

How to claim

Klaimly confirms your flight departed the UK and checks the real reason behind the disruption before submitting, then handles the Air India claim end to end for a flat 5% fee, only if we win. No VAT, no minimum fee, and nothing to pay unless your claim succeeds.