Why do flights get cancelled? The 8 most common reasons

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Written by a human· 100%

Updated:  October 2, 2026

9 minutes read

WRITTEN BY

Amy Lancelotte

Senior Writer & Content Strategist

REVIEWED BY

Anton Radchenko

Founder & CEO

Every cancelled flight has a cause, and the cause decides what you're owed. A storm and a crew shortage feel identical from the departure lounge, but one usually rules out compensation for the cancelled flight while the other may entitle you to it.

That difference matters more than most passengers realise, so for each of the 8 most common reasons for flight cancellations, you'll also find what it usually means for your rights.

In 2025, according to our AirData, there were 31,344 cancelled flights in the UK, which is 0.93% of all flights.

If your flight was cancelled within the last 6 years for those in England and Wales or the last 5 years in Scotland, you could be eligible for up to £520 (€600) in compensation.

Key takeaways

• The main reasons a flight is cancelled are weather, security issues, not enough passengers, air traffic control, tight scheduling/knock-on delays, technical problems, crew shortages, and strikes.
• The underlying cause and the cancellation timing (less than 14 days' notice) determine whether or not a passenger is eligible to claim compensation.
• When airlines can prevent the cancellation, like when it’s caused by staffing shortages or scheduling, compensation is possible.
• When the cancellation is due to extraordinary circumstances that the airline can’t realistically prevent, such as weather, compensation claims are usually denied. Assistance from the airline and flight refunds still apply, regardless of the cause.
• The maximum flight cancellation compensation depends on flight distance and new flight timing. In the UK, it’s £220/350/520, and in the EU, it’s €250/400/600.
• AirAdvisor can help you check your cancelled flight compensation.

1. Dangerous weather

Severe weather causes more cancellations than anything else, but rain alone rarely stops a flight. A flight is cancelled because of weather when flying would be unsafe, such as:

• Thick fog
• Winds too strong for takeoff
• Thunderstorms directly over the airport

Your flight can also be cancelled because of bad weather somewhere else, even when the sky above you is clear. This is because the plane and crew for your flight usually arrive from another airport, and a storm over that airport can strand them there.

So, is a cancelled flight due to weather compensated? Technically, weather counts as an extraordinary circumstance, so cash compensation is unlikely. You still get a refund or a new flight, plus meals and a hotel if you're stuck overnight.

One thing that’s worth checking: if other airlines were flying while your flight was cancelled, the real problem may have been within your airline's control.

The complications weather can bring are summed up well by Mark Hewitt, an air traffic controller at London Heathrow Airport:

Extreme weather introduces some fairly significant challenges to the air traffic control operation (not just at Heathrow but worldwide). Thunderstorms can't be flown through by aircraft… The further away from the flight-planned route that an aircraft goes in order to avoid weather, the more coordination is required, and the more complex the surrounding airspace becomes, quickly leading to a build-up of traffic.

— Mark Hewitt, air traffic controller at London Heathrow Airport.

2. Security concerns

Security problems cause far fewer cancellations than weather, and when they happen, the airline usually has no choice.

A bag that fails screening, a security breach in the terminal, or a credible threat can each stop departures. A flight can also be cancelled because of an unruly passenger. If removing them takes too long, the crew runs past their legal working hours, and the flight can’t leave.

Compensation depends on what caused the security problem. A threat to the airport is outside the airline's control, so compensation is unlikely in those cases.

But the airline still has to show it did everything it reasonably could to avoid cancelling your flight, so a security cancellation is worth checking rather than assuming nothing is owed.

3. Too few passengers

Airlines sometimes cancel a flight because too few people booked it. Flying a plane costs almost the same whether it carries 40 passengers or 180, so the airline merges two half-empty flights into one full one and saves money.

This is a business decision, and it is fully within the airline's control. If it happens less than 14 days before departure, compensation is likely.

4. Air traffic control, airspace congestion & ATC staffing

Air traffic control decides how many planes can safely use the airspace at once. When there are too many flights for the space available, controllers limit the number of takeoffs and landings, and airlines have to re-route, re-time, or cancel flights to fit the limit.

Shortages of air traffic controllers have made these limits more common across the UK and Europe.

Additionally, system outages with NATS, the UK's air traffic control system, directly affect air traffic control’s ability to operate safely.

These operational limitations come from outside the airline, so they count as extraordinary circumstances, and compensation is unlikely. Your refund, rebooking, and care rights still apply in full.

5. Knock-on delays and tight schedules

Most planes fly several routes a day, one after another, with less than an hour on the ground between them to unload, clean, refuel, and board.

If the first flight of the day runs late, every flight after it starts late too. By the evening, the delays can pile up so far that the airline cancels the last flight of the day rather than run it in the middle of the night or push the crew past their legal hours.

Compensation often applies here, because the airline is responsible for how tightly it plans its schedule. From a compensation perspective, reactionary cancellations are judged by the root cause. For example:

• A mechanical breakdown is controllable by the airline, so it’s likely compensation-eligible.
• A cancellation due to weather is likely not eligible.

Additionally, if the airline had the whole day to recover and didn't, your claim can still be valid.

No aircraft available

Planes need regular maintenance and safety checks, and faults still appear between checks. If a plane is grounded and the airline has no spare, the airline cancels a flight and uses its remaining planes on the busiest routes.

The problem gets worse in peak season, because airlines schedule more flights than their fleet can cover if anything goes wrong. A single grounded plane can mean several cancelled flights.

Keeping enough working aircraft is the airline's job. These cancellations count as within the airline's control, and compensation may apply.

6. Technical and IT failures

Computer failures now cause more cancellations than most passengers expect. If an airline's own booking, check-in, or scheduling system fails, the airline may not be able to operate any flights at all, and if a national system fails, no airline can fly.

UK passengers saw this in September 2026, when NATS failed. More than 2,000 flights were cancelled as a result.

Your rights depend on whose system failed. If the airline's own technology failed, compensation may apply. Faults with the aircraft itself follow the same rule as the airline's own technology.

Courts have ruled that mechanical problems are part of running an airline, not extraordinary circumstances.

If a national system failed, that counts as extraordinary and compensation is unlikely.

Bird strikes

A bird strike is a collision between an aircraft and a bird, usually during takeoff or landing. Even a single bird can damage the engines, nose, or windscreen, so after a bird strike, the aircraft must be inspected before it can fly again. If the airline has no replacement plane, your flight is cancelled.

Courts have ruled that bird strikes are extraordinary circumstances, so compensation is unlikely. The bird strike does have to be the real reason for the cancellation, and your care and rebooking rights always apply.

7. Crew shortages & duty-time limits

A flight cannot leave without a full crew, and the crew must be rested and within their legal working hours.

Sometimes crew members call in sick. Sometimes they're stuck in another city because an earlier flight was delayed, or their shift runs past its legal duty-time limit. In every case, the airline is left without enough staff to operate the flight, so it cancels.

Crew planning is the airline's responsibility, so compensation usually applies.

Pilots get ill like everyone else, but they are legally banned from flying while unwell. If the airline can't find a qualified replacement in time, it cancels the flight.

This sounds like bad luck, but courts have ruled that airlines must plan for it with standby pilots, so compensation may still apply. Airlines often reject these claims, and they are often worth challenging.

8. Strikes

There are two different types of strikes when it comes to cancelled flight compensation: airline staff and non-airline staff.

Airline staff strikes

Whether it’s the airline’s own pilots or the cabin crew, airline strikes are generally considered preventable by the airline. They are typically not extraordinary circumstances, so compensation is possible.

The precedent is clear here, as evidenced in the TUIfly court case C-195/17:

• After TUIfly announced a company restructuring in 2016, large numbers of pilots and cabin crew spontaneously reported sick.
• The result was many flight cancellations and delays.
• While not an official strike called by the trade union, it was considered a wildcat strike.
• The court upheld that this couldn't be an extraordinary circumstance because the wildcat strike resulted from the airline’s own actions (restructuring).
• The takeaway? An airline cannot automatically refuse airline strike compensation in the UK simply because a cancellation or delay was caused by its own staff taking industrial action.

Other strikes

A strike by people the airline does not employ, such as air traffic controllers or airport security staff, is different: the airline can’t control them, so compensation is unlikely.

In the event that a passenger’s flight is cancelled due to a non-airline strike, they are still entitled to care during the interruption (meals, hotels, transfers) and a refund if they choose not to continue travelling.

Controllable vs. extraordinary: The cancellations that get you paid

Compensation under UK261, and under EU261 for flights departing the EU, depends on one question: was the cause within the airline's control?

If the cancellations resulted from extraordinary circumstances that the airline could not reasonably have avoided, compensation usually isn’t required.

Technical problems are an important example. In the Wallentin-Hermann v Alitalia case (C-549/07), the European Court of Justice ruled that technical problems that arise during normal airline operations are not automatically extraordinary circumstances.

So, it’s possible to claim technical fault flight cancellation compensation in certain cases.

A technical fault doesn’t automatically give an airline a way out of paying compensation. Aircraft maintenance and dealing with routine mechanical problems are part of running an airline, so in most cases passengers should still check whether they’re entitled to claim.

— Anton Radchenko, International Aviation Lawyer and CEO of AirAdvisor.

Exceptions can include genuinely external events, such as a hidden manufacturing defect identified by the aircraft manufacturer or damage caused by sabotage or terrorism.

The timing of the cancellation also matters. If the airline tells you at least 14 days before departure, it does not have to pay cancellation compensation. If you receive less notice, compensation may be due unless extraordinary circumstances apply or the airline offers suitable alternative transport.

There are two important re-routing exceptions:

• 7 to 14 days' notice: The airline can avoid compensation if your new, replacement flight leaves no more than 2 hours earlier than originally scheduled and gets you to your destination less than 4 hours late.
• Less than 7 days' notice: Under Article 5(1)(c)(iii), the airline is not required to pay compensation if the new flight leaves no more than 1 hour early and gets you there less than 2 hours late.

Which flight cancellations qualify for compensation?

The maximum compensation is £220, £350, or £520 under UK261 and €250, €400, or €600 under EU261, depending mainly on the flight distance and circumstances.

Remember that compensation is separate from your right to a refund, re-routing, and care.

Even when an extraordinary circumstance cancellation happens, the airline must still offer you a refund or alternative transport and, where applicable, assistance such as meals and accommodation.

Why is your airline cancelling flights today?

When an airline cancels hundreds of flights in one day, the cause is almost always one of three things:

• Severe weather
• Air traffic control restriction
• Failure in the airline's own systems or staffing

You can usually work out which within minutes. First, check the airline's travel alerts page. Then check whether other airlines at the same airport are still flying. If they are, the problem is probably with your airline, not the weather or the airspace.

Write down what you find, because that difference decides whether the airline owes you compensation.

Can you avoid cancelled flights?

You can't eliminate the risk, but you can minimise it. Book the first flight of the day, because the plane has usually parked at your airport overnight and no knock-on delays have built up yet. Book a non-stop flight where you can, because a late first flight can't make you miss a connection you don't have. And prefer airlines that fly your route several times a day, because they can rebook you within hours instead of the next day.

What are your rights if your flight is cancelled?

You have three separate rights, and airlines rarely explain them together.

1. You choose between a full refund and a new flight to your destination. This applies regardless of what caused the cancellation.
2. The airline owes you care while you wait: meals, communication, and a hotel if you're stuck overnight. This also applies regardless of the cause.
3. If the cause was within the airline's control and you were told less than 14 days before departure, UK261 compensation of up to £520 (€600) may apply on top.

If your flight departed from the EU or was operated by an EU airline, your claim falls under EU Regulation 261 (EC 261), which pays up to €600 when the cancellation was the airline’s fault, and you were notified less than 14 days before departure.

For flights to, from, or within the UK, the same protections apply under UK261, with payouts of up to £520. The exact amount depends on how far you were flying.

If you're stranded mid-trip, here's what to do when your flight is cancelled. If you paid for a hotel yourself, you may be able to claim the cost back.

Figuring out how much you’re owed for a disrupted flight can be complicated. We’re here to help. Let us assess your compensation for you.

Flight delayed over 3 hours or cancelled?See if AirAdvisor can get you compensation.
Check Your Flight

Before you accept the airline's explanation

Airlines decide for themselves how to classify a cancellation, and that classification decides whether they pay, so the first explanation you're given is not always the full story.

A "weather" cancellation on a clear afternoon can be a valid claim. So can a "technical issue" the airline calls extraordinary, because courts say technical faults are the airline's responsibility.

Keep your booking confirmation and every message from the airline, note what other flights were doing, and check whether your flight qualifies. It takes a few minutes, claims can go back up to 6 years, and challenging the airline's first answer costs nothing.

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Author:

Amy Lancelotte

Job/Position: Senior Writer & Content Strategist

Amy Lancelotte is a Senior Content Writer and editorial contributor at AirAdvisor with over seven years of experience producing research-based articles for international audiences. Her work focuses on travel, aviation, and air passenger rights, with an emphasis on factual accuracy, verified data, and clear, reader-first explanations.

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