Flight delayed? What you can claim, and when

The short answer

If your flight landed three hours late or more, was cancelled less than two weeks before departure, or left without you because it was overbooked, the airline may owe you between €250 and €600. That is per passenger, not per booking. A family of four on a delayed Paris to Athens flight is looking at €1,600.

The money comes from EU Regulation 261/2004, usually called EU261, and from the UK’s copy of it, which pays in pounds. Airlines do not pay it automatically. You have to ask, and the airline can refuse if the cause was outside its control.

The rest of this guide covers which flights count, how the amount is worked out, the reasons an airline is allowed to refuse, and how long you have to claim.

Which flights are covered

The rules follow the departure airport first and the airline second.

• Any flight departing an airport in the EU, Iceland, Norway or Switzerland, whatever the airline.
• Flights arriving in the EU on an EU airline, unless you already received compensation or assistance under the other country’s rules.
• Any flight departing the UK, and flights arriving in the UK on a UK or EU airline. These fall under the UK rules.

How much you get

The amount depends on the distance of the flight, measured in a straight line from where you took off to your final destination. It does not depend on the fare you paid.

• €250 for flights of 1,500 km or less, such as London to Barcelona.
• €400 for flights within the EU longer than 1,500 km, such as Paris to Athens, and for other flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km.
• €600 for flights longer than 3,500 km that start or end outside the EU, such as Lisbon to New York.
• Under the UK rules the same bands pay £220, £350 and £520.

When the airline can pay half

If the airline cancels and puts you on another flight that gets you there close to the original time, it can cut the payment by 50%. The cut applies when the new flight arrives no more than two, three or four hours late, for the three distance bands in order.

Long flights have one more exception. On a flight over 3,500 km that lands between three and four hours late, the airline can halve the payment, so €300 instead of €600, or £260 on the UK rules.

The three-hour rule, and when the clock stops

The delay that counts is the delay at arrival. How late the flight left is irrelevant. A flight that departs three hours late and lands two hours and fifty minutes late pays nothing.

Arrival means the moment at least one door of the aircraft opens after landing, not the moment the wheels touch the runway. The EU Court of Justice settled that in 2014, and it matters on flights that land with minutes to spare and then wait for a stand.

Connecting flights on one booking are judged at the final destination. If your first leg is 40 minutes late and you miss a connection that gets you home four hours late, the four hours are what count. That holds even when the late leg was outside the EU, as long as the journey started in the EU or was operated by an EU airline.

Write down the time the doors opened, or take a screenshot of a flight tracker. It is the easiest piece of evidence to lose.

Cancellations and overbooking

For a cancellation, what matters is how much notice you were given and how close the replacement flight comes to the original.

• 14 days’ notice or more: no compensation.
• 7 to 13 days’ notice: no compensation if the new flight leaves no more than 2 hours early and lands less than 4 hours late.
• Less than 7 days’ notice: no compensation if the new flight leaves no more than 1 hour early and lands less than 2 hours late.

Being bumped off an overbooked flight

When a flight is overbooked, the airline has to ask for volunteers first. If you are refused boarding against your will, you are owed compensation straight away, plus a refund or a new flight, plus meals and a hotel if you have to wait.

The airline can still refuse you boarding without paying for reasons that have nothing to do with overbooking: missing or invalid travel documents, health, safety or security.

When the airline does not have to pay

An airline owes nothing if the disruption came from extraordinary circumstances it could not have avoided with all reasonable measures. The burden of proof is on the airline, so ask which circumstance it is relying on and what evidence it has.

• Usually extraordinary: weather that makes flying unsafe, air traffic control restrictions and strikes, strikes by airport staff, security alerts, political unrest, and bird strikes.
• Not extraordinary: technical faults found during maintenance, and strikes by the airline’s own staff, whether a union called them or not.

What the airline owes you while you wait

Compensation is one right. Care is another, and it applies even when the cause was extraordinary. Once a delay reaches two hours on a short flight, three on a medium one or four on a long one, the airline has to give you meals and refreshments and two phone calls or emails.

If the new departure is the next day or later, add a hotel room and transport to it. If the delay reaches five hours, you can give up the trip altogether and get a refund for the unused ticket.

When an airline does not hand out vouchers or book the hotel, pay reasonable costs yourself and keep every receipt. You can claim them back along with the compensation.

How long you have to claim

EU261 sets no deadline of its own. The limit comes from national law, usually the law of the country where you bring the claim, and it varies a lot.

• United Kingdom: 6 years in England and Wales, 5 in Scotland.
• Ireland: 6 years.
• Spain and France: 5 years.
• Germany: 3 years, counted from the end of the year of the flight.
• Portugal: 3 years to complain to the aviation authority.
• Belgium: 1 year.

Why sooner is better

Italy and the Netherlands have no settled deadline yet. And once the EU261 changes agreed in 2026 apply, passengers will have nine months to file. Claim within weeks of the flight and no deadline, old or new, can catch you out.

How to claim

Start with the airline. Most have an online form. Send your booking reference, the flight number and date, the names of everyone on the booking, what happened, and your receipts for anything you paid while waiting.

If the airline refuses, or has not answered within two months, take it further. In the EU that means the national enforcement body in the country where the disruption happened; the European Commission keeps the list. In Spain, decisions by the aviation authority AESA are binding on airlines for flights since 2 June 2023. In the UK, most large airlines belong to one of two dispute schemes: AviationADR, which handles easyJet, Ryanair and Wizz Air among others, and CEDR, which handles British Airways among others.

This is the slow part. If you would rather hand it over, we file and follow up eligible claims for you: unlimited claims on the Premium plan, and 2 a quarter on Medium.