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Heathrow delays on Wednesday, 27 November 2024

Eurocontrol logged 4,796 minutes of air-traffic arrival delay at London Heathrow that day across 104 arrivals held 15 minutes or more out of 649 (16% of the day's arrivals), with 99% of the delay attributed to accident or incident. That makes it the 132nd worst day at Heathrow since January 2019.

Eurocontrol record · EGLL · 2024-11-27

ATFM arrival delay4,796 min
Arrivals held 15+ min104 of 649
Accident or incident4,725 min · 99%
Weather71 min · 1%
Weather observed (METAR)MARGINAL
Lowest visibility · max gust4,892 m · none

Delay codes are Eurocontrol's IATA-standard causes. 1% of this day's delay sits in categories airlines usually plead as extraordinary circumstances.

Were you on a flight that day?

The day the flight was due to leave, in local time where it left. For an overnight flight, that is the evening you set off.

Same flight number twice that day? Add the departure code

Free. No account. The airline is not contacted.

What this means if your flight was late

Under UK261 and EU261 you are owed £220, £350 or £520 (or €250, €400, €600) per passenger for arriving three hours or more late, unless the airline proves extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even with all reasonable measures. Airport-wide records like this one are the airline's favourite evidence, and they cut both ways.

  • The usual defences have little behind them on this day. The logged cause was accident or incident, which is arguable at best. A refusal citing weather or air traffic control should be answered with this record.
  • Cancelled that day? Compensation depends on notice: under 14 days and no close re-routing means it is due, subject to the same extraordinary-circumstances test. You are always owed a refund or re-routing and care while you wait.
  • Delayed under three hours? No fixed compensation, but food, drink and communications were owed after two hours on a short flight, and reasonable expenses are recoverable.

The free check pulls your flight's own record (actual arrival time against schedule) and pairs it with this day's data, so the verdict and the letter are specific to your flight, not to the airport.

Other airports the same day

Amsterdam Schiphol7,449 minWeather
Gran Canaria777 minAerodrome capacity
Krakow Balice685 minWeather
London City529 minWeather
Cologne Bonn358 minWeather
Zürich334 minWeather
London Gatwick330 minWeather
Frankfurt304 minWeather
Barcelona234 minATC equipment

Other bad days at Heathrow

27 December 202419,801 minWeather
11 December 202216,044 minWeather
24 November 202415,802 minWeather
29 December 202415,708 minWeather
7 December 202414,938 minWeather
18 October 202413,656 minWeather
6 March 202413,182 minWeather
6 February 202013,153 minWeather

Questions

My flight from Heathrow on 27 November 2024 was delayed. Can I claim compensation?

If you arrived at your final destination 3 hours or more late, the starting position is £220 to £520 per passenger depending on distance. The airline can refuse only by proving extraordinary circumstances that affected your specific flight. Eurocontrol's record for this day does not show the kind of cause airlines usually plead, so a refusal on those grounds would be weak. Run the free check on your flight number for the verified answer.

Was the Heathrow disruption on 27 November 2024 caused by weather?

Partly or wholly: 1% of the 4,796 logged minutes were coded as weather. The airport's own weather observations that day show no significant phenomena, lowest visibility 4892 m and strongest gust none reported kt.

Does a bad day at Heathrow mean every delayed flight is exempt from compensation?

No. Air-traffic delay attributed to an airport explains some of the day's lateness, not all of it, and it is the airline that must prove your flight's delay was caused by it and could not have been avoided with reasonable measures such as schedule buffers and spare aircraft. Flights delayed by a technical fault, crew shortage or a late inbound aircraft from an unaffected airport are compensable regardless of what happened at Heathrow.

Sources: Eurocontrol Performance Review Unit, airport arrival ATFM delay by cause (daily); METAR observations via the Iowa Environmental Mesonet archive. This page describes the airport's day; your flight's own record decides your claim. All Heathrow delay days.