Flight compensation under EU Regulation 261/2004

Under EU Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 and the relevant rulings of the Court of Justice of the EU, an air passenger may be entitled to compensation if the airline has breached its obligations and:

• the flight was delayed;
• the flight was cancelled;
• the departure time was moved earlier or later;
• the passenger was denied boarding against their will;
• or the passenger missed a connecting flight because of one of the above.

If you have experienced any of these situations, you may be entitled to 250–600 euros from the airline.

What is flight compensation?

Flight compensation is a cash payment of 250 €, 400 € or 600 € set out in Article 7(1) of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004. Its purpose is to guarantee passengers uniform and immediate compensation for the inconvenience caused by disruptions such as a delay, cancellation or denied boarding.

The compensation is always paid by the airline, not by a travel agency or an insurer. A delay or cancellation also covers situations where the aircraft took off but returned, or landed at a different airport than planned.

Which flights does the Regulation cover?

The Regulation protects air passengers and applies to all flights operated by an EU airline. It also applies to flights of third-country airlines departing from an airport in the EU. Every passenger is entitled to compensation regardless of nationality, as long as the flight meets the conditions of the Regulation.

“European Union” covers all 27 member states plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, and their territories, including Madeira, the Canary Islands and other regions belonging to EU member states.

If the flight takes place outside the EU or from outside the EU into the EU with a third-country airline (e.g. American Airlines), the Regulation can apply only under a single contract of carriage (shared PNR code) covering at least two consecutive flights, and the journey must start in the EU (e.g. Helsinki – New York – Cancun). This is confirmed by CJEU case law (C-537/17, C-502/18, C-561/20).

If the journey starts outside the EU with a third-country airline (e.g. New York – Helsinki, American Airlines) and continues on an EU carrier (e.g. Helsinki – Tallinn, Finnair), the Regulation applies only if there is a code-share agreement (see C-367/20).

When may you be entitled to compensation?

• Delay: you reached your final destination at least 3 hours later than planned. This includes cases where the first flight is delayed and you miss the connection (Art. 6; C-11/11 Folkerts, C-452/13).
• Cancellation or schedule change: the new flight departs more than 1 hour earlier or arrives more than 2 hours later than the original, and you were informed less than 7 days before departure (Art. 5(1)(c), C-263/20).
• Denied boarding: you were refused boarding against your will (Art. 4) — for example due to overbooking.

What determines the amount?

The amount depends on the distance between the starting point and the final destination in a single booking (Art. 7(1)). Distance is calculated by the great-circle method — stopovers do not count.

When is there no right to compensation?

• The flight was cancelled or rescheduled, but you were informed more than 14 days before departure.
• The flight was delayed, but you arrived less than 3 hours late (for connecting flights — if the delay occurred only on the last flight).
• The flight was cancelled, but the replacement flight left less than 1 hour earlier and arrived less than 2 hours later.
• The departure time was moved earlier by less than 1 hour.
• The flight was delayed by over 3 hours, but you did not show up or bought a new ticket and arrived less than 3 hours late (C-474/22, C-54/23).
• The journey consisted of one flight with a third-country airline and the disruption occurred on departure outside the EU.

When may the airline lawfully refuse?

An airline may refuse if the flight was affected by an extraordinary circumstance that it could not have avoided even if it had taken all reasonable measures — for example a volcanic eruption, extreme weather or an air traffic control shutdown.

The airline must prove that the cause really was an extraordinary circumstance unrelated to its own actions, and that it took all reasonable measures, including offering the first available alternative flight. In practice airlines often cannot prove this.

A strike, for instance, may be an extraordinary circumstance but not always: a strike by the airline’s own staff is not, while a strike by air traffic control or airport staff usually is. Every case must be assessed individually.

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