Ryanair cancelled or delayed flight: your compensation

EU261 covers every Ryanair flight departing from an airport in the EU, Iceland, Norway or Switzerland. Because Ryanair is a European airline, it also covers its flights into those countries from anywhere in the world.

• Ryanair (Ryanair DAC) holds an Irish operating licence, so it is a European airline. EU261 covers its flights departing from the EU, Iceland, Norway or Switzerland, and its flights into those countries.
• Your flight may be operated by another airline of the Ryanair group: Malta Air or Lauda Europe, both licensed in Malta, or Buzz, licensed in Poland. They are European airlines too, so the same rules apply. The operating airline is shown on your boarding pass. Ryanair UK is licensed in the United Kingdom.
• Almost all Ryanair flights stay within Europe, where the compensation is €250 for flights up to 1,500 km and €400 for longer flights within the EU. €600 applies only to flights over 3,500 km leaving the EU, which Ryanair rarely operates.
• Ryanair states that it does not overbook its flights, so being denied boarding because of overbooking is rare. If you are refused boarding against your will anyway, for a reason other than something like missing travel documents, compensation is due.
• Ryanair's own notice of passenger rights lists labour disputes among extraordinary circumstances and does not mention compensation for long delays. The Court of Justice of the EU has held that a strike by an airline's own staff is not an extraordinary circumstance (Airhelp v SAS, C-28/20, 2021), and that arriving 3 hours or more late gives the same compensation as a cancellation (Sturgeon, 2009).
• Ryanair's terms ask passengers to submit their claim directly and to allow it 14 days to reply before involving a third party. Under EU law, a clause that stops you transferring your claim to someone else cannot be enforced (Court of Justice of the EU, Eventmedia, C-11/23, 2024).
• Ryanair publishes its own punctuality figures: 88% of its flights were on time in August 2026, and between 85% and 93% in every month since January 2025. Figures from independent trackers are lower. Either way, what decides your claim is when your own flight arrived.

Compensation is usually not due when:

• the flight arrived less than 3 hours late;
• you were told about the cancellation at least 14 days before departure;
• the disruption was caused by extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken — for example severe weather, air traffic control restrictions, a security risk, or a strike by staff who do not work for the airline;
• the flight is not covered by EU261 (see above).

A technical fault, or a strike by Ryanair's own staff, is generally not an extraordinary circumstance, so compensation is usually still due.

If Ryanair rejects your claim or does not reply, you can complain to the national enforcement body of the country your flight departed from.

Every EU country has one, as do Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.

Or let us handle it: we take your claim to Ryanair, and to the enforcement body or to court if needed.