EU261, explained properly

Who is covered

The Regulation applies to your flight if either of these is true:

• You departed from an airport in the EU, on any airline at all. A Delta flight from Paris to New York is covered. (EU261 Art. 3(1))
• You flew into the EU on an EU airline. An Air France flight from New York to Paris is covered; a Delta flight on the same route is not.

“EU” here includes Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein (through the EEA Agreement) and Switzerland (through its air transport agreement with the EU). It also includes the EU’s outermost regions — the Canary Islands, Madeira, the Azores, Réunion, Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana. Flights from the UK are covered by the UK’s own version, UK261.

The claim is made against the operating airline — the one whose aircraft and crew flew the plane — not necessarily the one that sold you the ticket.

How much

Compensation is a fixed sum per passenger, set by the distance of the flight. It has nothing to do with what you paid for the ticket. (EU261 Art. 7(1))

The distance is the great-circle distance between your departure airport and your final destination — a straight line on the globe, not the route flown. (EU261 Art. 7(4)) On a connecting journey, it is the distance from the first airport to the last.

One quirk catches people out: every flight within the EU of more than 1,500 km sits in the middle band, however long it is. Paris to Réunion is over 9,000 km, but because both airports are in the EU it pays €400, not €600.

Delays: it is the arrival that counts

The Regulation itself only talks about care during delays. The right to compensation for a delay comes from the Court of Justice, which held in 2009 that passengers who reach their final destination 3 hours or more late are in the same position as passengers whose flight was cancelled. (Sturgeon (C-402/07 and C-432/07))

It is the arrival delay that matters, not the departure delay. A flight that leaves four hours late but lands 2 hours 50 minutes late is not covered. A flight that leaves two hours late and lands 3 hours 10 minutes late is. “Arrival” means the moment at least one door opens and passengers can get off — not touchdown. (Germanwings v Henning (C-452/13))

If a delay reaches 5 hours, you can also abandon the journey and get a refund of the unused ticket. (EU261 Art. 6(1)(c)(iii) with Art. 8(1)(a))

Cancellations

If your flight is cancelled you are always entitled to choose between a full refund and a replacement flight. Whether you are also owed compensation depends on how much notice you were given. (EU261 Art. 5(1)(c))

If you took a refund rather than a replacement flight, the airline cannot rely on those windows at all: with less than 14 days’ notice, compensation is due.

Denied boarding and overbooking

When a flight is overbooked, the airline must first ask for volunteers. If you volunteer, you get whatever you agree with them instead of the fixed compensation. (EU261 Art. 4(1)) If you are refused boarding against your will, you are owed compensation immediately, whatever time you eventually arrive, plus a refund or a replacement flight. (EU261 Art. 4(3))

The exceptions are refusals on reasonable grounds — your health, safety or security, or inadequate travel documents. (EU261 Art. 2(j)) You must also have checked in on time with a confirmed reservation.

Missed connections

If all your flights were on a single booking and a delay made you miss a connection, the delay is measured at your final destination. Reach it three hours or more late and compensation is due — even if the first flight was only half an hour behind. (Folkerts (C-11/11)) Separately booked flights are separate journeys, and a missed self-connection is not covered.

Refunds, re-routing and the halving rule

After a cancellation or denied boarding, you choose: a refund of the ticket, re-routing at the earliest opportunity, or re-routing at a later date that suits you. (EU261 Art. 8)

One rule is often missed, including by claim companies: if you were re-routed and still reached your destination within 2, 3 or 4 hours of the original arrival time (by distance band), the airline may pay half. (EU261 Art. 7(2)) Our checker applies this, so the figure we show is the figure you should expect.

Compensation is paid in money. An airline may only pay in vouchers if you agree in writing.

Meals, hotels and care

Separately from compensation, a delayed passenger is owed meals and refreshments, two phone calls or emails, and — if the delay runs overnight — a hotel and transfers. (EU261 Art. 9) This starts at 2 hours for short flights, 3 hours for medium ones and 4 hours for long ones, and applies even when the delay was caused by extraordinary circumstances. Keep your receipts if the airline did not provide it.

When the airline can refuse

An airline does not have to pay compensation if it can prove the disruption was caused by extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. (EU261 Art. 5(3)) The burden of proof is entirely the airline’s. (EU261 Art. 5(3), read with Recital 14)

Usually accepted as extraordinary

• Severe weather
• Air traffic control strike or restriction
• Political instability, civil unrest, or airspace closure
• Security risk, security alert, or airport closure
• Bird strike
• Medical emergency on board, or a diversion

Even then, the airline must show the event actually caused your flight’s disruption, and that it did everything reasonable to limit it. (Eglītis (C-294/10)) That is why we mark these claims as disputed — worth challenging, never as a definite no.

Not extraordinary — however often airlines say otherwise

• Technical or mechanical problem with the aircraft. A technical or mechanical fault is not an extraordinary circumstance. The Court of Justice has held that such problems are inherent in the normal exercise of an air carrier’s activity — including faults that appear suddenly and were not detectable during routine maintenance. Airlines reject these claims routinely, and are routinely wrong.
• Strike by the airline’s own staff (pilots, cabin crew, ground staff). A strike by the airline’s own employees is not an extraordinary circumstance. Industrial action over pay and conditions is a foreseeable and manageable part of running an airline. This is settled, and it is one of the most commonly misapplied rejections.
• Crew unavailable, out of hours, or a rostering problem. Crew sickness, rostering failures and running out of legal duty hours are operational matters within the airline’s control. They are not extraordinary circumstances.
• Operational reasons / knock-on delay from an earlier flight. "Operational reasons" is not a category in the Regulation. A knock-on delay only excuses the airline if it can show a direct causal link to a genuine extraordinary circumstance on an earlier flight, AND that it could not reasonably have re-organised its schedule. Ask them to show that chain.
• Flight overbooked, or consolidated for commercial reasons. Overbooking, and cancelling a flight because it was not full enough, are commercial decisions. They are the opposite of extraordinary.

The two most important rulings: a technical fault is not extraordinary, even when sudden and unforeseeable (van der Lans (C-257/14)), and neither is a strike by the airline’s own staff (Airhelp v SAS (C-28/20)). These two account for a large share of wrongly rejected claims.

How to claim

1. Write to the operating airline, stating the flight, the date, the route, what happened and the amount, and asking for payment within a set period — 14 days is usual.
2. If they refuse or do not reply, complain to the national enforcement body — usually the one in the country the flight departed from.
3. If that does not resolve it, you can go to court. You may sue in the country of departure or of arrival. (Rehder v Air Baltic (C-204/08)) For cross-border claims up to €5,000 there is the European Small Claims Procedure.

There is no time limit in the Regulation itself; each country’s own law applies, and the limits are longer than most people think. See the limit in each country.