Your Complete Guide to EU261 Flight Compensation

What EU261 is

Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 — usually shortened to EU261 or EC261 — has been in force since February 2005. It sets out what airlines owe passengers when a flight is cancelled, delayed by three hours or more at arrival, or when a passenger is denied boarding against their will (typically because of overbooking). The UK kept an identical copy after Brexit, known as UK261, so the same rights apply to flights from British airports.

Which flights are covered

• Any flight departing an airport in the EU, Iceland, Norway or Switzerland — whatever the airline's nationality.
• Any flight arriving in the EU operated by an EU-licensed airline (Lufthansa from New York: yes; United from New York: no).
• Flights departing the UK, and flights into the UK on a UK or EU airline, under UK261.

The rule looks at the operating carrier, not the airline that sold the ticket. A codeshare booked with Air France but flown by Delta from Atlanta is outside the regulation.

How much you receive

Flight distance	Compensation per passenger	UK261 equivalent
Up to 1,500 km	€250	£220
1,500 – 3,500 km (and all intra-EU flights over 1,500 km)	€400	£350
Over 3,500 km	€600	£520

Distance is measured as the great-circle distance between the departure airport and the final destination on your booking — including any connecting flights on the same ticket. The amount is per passenger, including children with their own seat, and does not depend on what you paid for the ticket. The airline may halve the amount if it re-routes you and you arrive within 2, 3 or 4 hours (depending on distance) of the original schedule.

Delays: the three-hour rule

The regulation's text only mentions cancellations, but the Court of Justice ruled in Sturgeon (2009) and confirmed in Nelson (2012) that a delay of three hours or more at the final destination is treated like a cancellation for compensation purposes. Arrival time means the moment at least one aircraft door opens — not touchdown (Germanwings v Henning, 2014). A flight scheduled to land at 18:00 whose doors open at 21:01 qualifies; one whose doors open at 20:59 does not.

Cancellations: the 14-day rule

If the airline tells you about a cancellation at least 14 days before departure, no compensation is due — but you keep the right to a refund or re-routing. Inside 14 days, compensation is due unless the airline offers an alternative flight that departs and arrives close to the original times (the exact windows are two hours before and four hours after when notified 7–14 days out; one hour before and two hours after when notified under 7 days).

Denied boarding

When a flight is overbooked, the airline must first ask for volunteers. Anyone bumped against their will is owed the full compensation immediately, at the airport, plus a refund or re-routing and care. Being refused boarding because of your own documents, safety or security reasons is not "denied boarding" in this sense.

The exception: extraordinary circumstances

An airline escapes compensation only if the disruption was caused by extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. Severe weather, air traffic control restrictions, political instability, third-party strikes and bird strikes generally qualify. Technical faults, crew shortages, strikes by the airline's own staff, late inbound aircraft and IT failures generally do not. We cover this in detail in Extraordinary Circumstances: What Counts and What Doesn't.

Care and assistance are separate

Regardless of the cause, once a delay reaches two hours (short-haul), three hours (medium-haul) or four hours (long-haul), the airline must provide meals and refreshments, two phone calls or emails, and — if an overnight stay becomes necessary — a hotel and transport to it. If the airline does not organise this, keep receipts and claim the reasonable cost back. This duty applies even during extraordinary circumstances.

How to claim

1. Gather your booking reference, flight number and date, and any messages from the airline (see how to document a disruption).
2. Submit a written claim to the operating airline, quoting Regulation 261/2004 and the amount you believe is due.
3. If the airline rejects, offers vouchers instead of cash (you can refuse vouchers), or does not answer within about six weeks, escalate: to the national enforcement body, an ADR scheme, or a claims service like ours that takes the case to court on a no-win-no-fee basis.

Time limits depend on the country whose courts would hear the case — anywhere from one to six years. See time limits by country.

Frequently Misunderstood Points

• "I was rebooked, so there is nothing to claim." Re-routing is your right under Article 8; compensation under Article 7 is separate and still due if you arrived 3+ hours late or the cancellation was announced inside 14 days.
• "The airline offered €100 in vouchers, so the case is closed." Only if you accepted in writing. Statutory compensation is payable in money, and a voucher is a settlement only with your signed agreement.
• "My connection was on a partner airline, so nobody is responsible." On a single booking, the airline that operated the delayed leg — or the EU airline that sold the ticket — is responsible for the arrival delay at the final destination.
• "It happened two years ago; it's too late." Time limits run from one to six years depending on the country of the court. Most claims from the last three years are still possible somewhere.
• "Low-cost airlines are exempt." They are not. Ryanair, Wizz Air and easyJet pay exactly the same amounts as full-service carriers.

How Airlines Respond, Statistically

In FlyHelp's experience roughly half of well-founded claims are accepted at the first written request. Of the rest, about a third are paid after the operational evidence is put to the airline or a regulator is involved, and the remainder go to court, where the airline usually settles before the hearing. Fewer than one in twenty claims that pass our initial assessment end in a loss — typically where the airline can produce a genuine weather or ATC record that was not visible from public data.

Checklist Before You Claim

1. Departure airport in the EU/EEA/UK, or EU/UK airline arriving in Europe?
2. Arrival at the final destination 3+ hours late, or cancellation notice under 14 days, or involuntary denied boarding?
3. Cause within the airline's control (technical, crew, rotation, own strike, IT), or at least unproven by the airline?
4. Within the time limit of at least one available jurisdiction?
5. Booking confirmation available?

Five yeses mean a claim; the amount is decided by distance alone. If you are unsure about question 3, submit the flight anyway — establishing the cause is the part we do.

Worked Example: One Family, One Cancelled Flight

A family of four books Manchester–Palma with a UK low-cost carrier for a July holiday. At 21:00 the evening before, the airline emails that the 07:10 flight is cancelled "due to operational reasons" and offers a seat on the same flight two days later, or a refund. The family accepts the later flight, pays for two extra nights at home and loses two nights of a pre-paid hotel in Majorca. Under UK261 the analysis runs like this: departure from the UK, so the regulation applies; notice under seven days; the replacement departs more than an hour earlier or arrives more than two hours later than the original — in fact two days later — so compensation is due unless the airline proves extraordinary circumstances; "operational reasons" is not such proof. Distance Manchester–Palma is about 1,700 km, so each passenger is owed £350, a total of £1,400. The two lost hotel nights in Majorca are not covered by UK261 but may be recoverable under the Montreal Convention or from travel insurance, and the airline must also refund any meals the family bought while waiting had they been at the airport. The claim: booking confirmation, the cancellation email with its timestamp, and a one-paragraph description. Expected outcome: payment within four to eight weeks if the airline accepts, or three to six months if it has to be taken to AviationADR or the county court.

Glossary

• Operating carrier — the airline that actually flew (or was to fly) the aircraft; the one liable under EU261.
• Final destination — the last airport on a single booking; delays are measured there.
• Extraordinary circumstances — events outside the airline's control that could not have been avoided by reasonable measures; the airline's only defence to compensation.
• Re-routing — transport to your destination on another flight, at the airline's expense, as soon as possible or at a later date of your choice.
• National Enforcement Body (NEB) — the authority in each country that supervises airlines' compliance (CAA, DGAC, LBA, AESA, IAA…).
• ADR — alternative dispute resolution; an arbitration or mediation scheme that can decide a claim without court.