Delayed flight compensation: your rights under EU261

The regulation's own text promises compensation only for cancellations and denied boarding. In 2009 the Court of Justice of the European Union held that passengers who reach their final destination 3 hours or more late suffer the same loss and are owed the same compensation (Sturgeon, C-402/07 and C-432/07).

Three conditions apply. The flight must be covered: it departed from the EU, Iceland, Norway or Switzerland, or flew into one of them on a European airline. You must have arrived 3 hours or more after the scheduled arrival time. And the delay must not have been caused by extraordinary circumstances (see below).

What counts is the arrival, not the departure: a flight that took off 4 hours late but landed 2 hours 50 minutes late gives no compensation. And arrival means the moment at least one door opens and passengers may leave the aircraft, not touchdown (Court of Justice, Germanwings, C-452/13, 2014).

The amount depends on the distance of the flight, not on the price of the ticket: €250 for flights up to 1,500 km; €400 for flights of 1,500 to 3,500 km, and for every flight over 1,500 km within the EU; €600 for longer flights between the EU and the rest of the world. The distance is measured in a straight line between the two airports.

On those longest flights, arriving 3 to 4 hours late gives half, €300; arriving 4 hours or more late gives the full €600. Compensation is paid per passenger, in money: travel vouchers only if you agree to them in writing.

Whatever caused the delay, even a storm, the airline must look after you once the departure is delayed by 2 hours for flights up to 1,500 km, 3 hours for flights of 1,500 to 3,500 km and longer flights within the EU, or 4 hours for longer flights (Article 6). It must offer meals and refreshments in proportion to the wait, two phone calls or emails and, if you have to stay overnight, a hotel and transport to it (Article 9).

If it does not, buy what is reasonable, keep the receipts and claim them back: these costs are owed on top of any compensation. Once the delay reaches 5 hours, you may also give up the trip and get your ticket refunded, with a flight back to your starting point if you are part-way through the journey.

The airline owes no compensation if it proves that the delay was caused by extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken (Article 5(3)). The Court of Justice reads this exception narrowly: it covers events that are not part of the normal running of an airline and are beyond its control.

Usually extraordinary: severe weather, air traffic control restrictions or strikes, security alerts, a bird strike (Pešková, C-315/15, 2017), or a hidden manufacturing defect revealed by the manufacturer or the authorities. Usually not: a technical problem found during maintenance or before departure (Wallentin-Hermann, C-549/07, 2008), a strike by the airline's own staff (Airhelp v SAS, C-28/20, 2021) or a crew shortage. A delay carried over from an earlier flight of the same aircraft counts only if that earlier flight was itself hit by an extraordinary circumstance that directly caused your delay (TAP, C-74/19, 2020).

Even when the cause is extraordinary, the airline must still look after you while you wait.

If your journey had a connection and both flights were on one booking, what counts is how late you reached your final destination. A first flight 1 hour late that made you miss your connection and arrive 4 hours late gives compensation (Folkerts, C-11/11, 2013), based on the straight-line distance from your first departure airport to your final destination (Bossen, C-559/16, 2017).

This holds even for a connection outside the EU, if the journey began in the EU on a single booking (Wegener, C-537/17, 2018). Flights booked separately are judged one at a time.

The regulation sets no time limit of its own: the limitation period is that of the country whose courts hear the claim (Court of Justice, Moré, C-139/11, 2012). It differs widely: 5 years in France, for example, and 3 years from the end of the year of the flight in Germany, and shorter in some countries. Claim as soon as you can, and keep your booking confirmation, your boarding pass and a note of the time you actually 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;

• Cancelled flight
• Denied boarding and overbooking
• Strikes
• Refund or compensation
• EU261, the regulation
• Airlines