Passenger rights under EU 261: compensation for delays and cancellations

The departure board flips from “Delayed” to “Cancelled”, and within seconds a line forms at the gate. Anyone who knows at that moment what they are entitled to has a clear advantage. Passenger rights under EU Regulation 261/2004 govern when you are owed flat-rate compensation, meals, a hotel or your money back in the event of a delay, cancellation or overbooking. This guide explains the rules in a way you can apply at the gate. It also shows where the airline rightly refuses and how to proceed when it refuses wrongly.

This article is general guidance and not legal advice. In an individual case, the specific circumstances decide.

Passenger rights under EU 261: the short answer

If you arrive at least three hours late at your final destination, your flight is canceled at short notice or you are denied boarding against your will, you generally have a right to flat-rate compensation of €250, €400 or €600. The amount depends solely on the flight distance, not on the ticket price. The airline does not have to pay if it proves extraordinary circumstances, such as storms or instructions from air traffic control. It still has to provide meals and, where applicable, a hotel.

Which flights the regulation covers

Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 has applied since February 17, 2005 and replaced an older, much weaker rule. Whether it applies to your flight is decided by two questions: where does the flight depart, and who operates it?

Route	Airline	Does EU 261 apply?
Within the EU	any airline	yes
From the EU to a non-EU country	any airline	yes
From a non-EU country into the EU	EU airline	yes
From a non-EU country into the EU	airline from a non-EU country	no

Iceland, Norway and Switzerland also apply the rules. What counts is the operating air carrier, meaning the airline that actually flies. On codeshare flights, a different airline is often on the ticket than in the cockpit. For EU 261, whoever operates the flight counts. If you have already received benefits in a non-EU country under local law for the same disruption, the claim under EU law lapses.

The three kinds of benefits at a glance

The regulation distinguishes three kinds of help, which are often mixed up.

• Compensation: a flat payment for lost time and hassle. It is independent of what your ticket cost. Even a €20 ticket on a low-cost carrier can trigger €250.
• Care: meals and refreshments in reasonable proportion to the waiting time, two phone calls or emails and, for an overnight stay, a hotel and the transfer there.
• Refund or rerouting: you choose between the money for the ticket and another connection to your destination, immediately or later.

Compensation and care are two separate claims. If compensation falls away because of extraordinary circumstances, the duty to provide care remains anyway.

How much compensation you are owed

The amount of compensation depends on the great-circle distance between the departure and destination airports. For connecting itineraries, the distance from the first departure point to the final destination counts.

Flight distance	Compensation	Halved if the replacement flight arrives at most … later
up to 1,500 km	€250	2 hours → €125
within the EU over 1,500 km and other flights from 1,500 to 3,500 km	€400	3 hours → €200
all other flights over 3,500 km	€600	4 hours → €300

The reduction applies if the airline offers you a replacement connection and you reach your destination with it only within the stated time after the originally planned arrival. On long-haul flights over 3,500 kilometers with an arrival delay between three and four hours, the airline can likewise cut the compensation to €300.

Delay: arrival beats departure

In the text of the regulation in force so far, compensation for delay does not appear at all. That it exists anyway goes back to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU): in the Sturgeon case, it decided in 2009 that passengers with an arrival delay of three hours or more are to be treated the same as passengers on a canceled flight. The court has confirmed this line several times since.

Two details often make the difference in practice:

• It is measured at the final destination. For a connecting itinerary on a single booking, what counts is how late you arrive at the last airport. If you miss the connection because of a delayed feeder flight and arrive three hours later as a result, that is enough. For the connection itself, the guide on minimum connection times at hubs helps.
• The door counts, not touchdown. The CJEU decided in 2014 that arrival is only reached when at least one door is open and passengers can disembark. If the jet is still standing on the apron for 20 minutes after landing, those minutes count toward the delay.

In the case of large departure delays, you also get care, graded by distance: from two hours on flights up to 1,500 kilometers, from three hours on medium routes and from four hours on all other flights. If departure is delayed by at least five hours, you may abandon the trip and have the ticket price refunded. If you are already on your way, the airline must take you back to the original airport on request.

Why flights are delayed in the first place – from the rotation via the slot system to capacity limits at Eurocontrol – is explained in the article Why flights are delayed.

Cancellation: notice period matters

If your flight is canceled, you have a choice between a refund and rerouting as well as a right to care during the wait. Whether compensation is also due depends on how early the airline informed you:

Notice of the cancellation	Compensation?
at least 14 days before departure	no
7 to 14 days before	no, if the replacement connection departs at most 2 hours earlier and arrives less than 4 hours later
less than 7 days before	no, if the replacement connection departs at most 1 hour earlier and arrives less than 2 hours later
otherwise	yes, unless there are extraordinary circumstances

The airline has to prove when and how it informed you. If you booked through a travel agency or a booking portal, make sure a current email address and phone number are on file there. If the intermediary does not pass on timely information from the airline to you, the airline remains liable to you under CJEU case law. It can then, where applicable, seek recourse from the intermediary.

Overbooking and downgrading

On many routes, airlines sell more tickets than there are seats because, experience shows, not all passengers show up. If the numbers do not add up, the airline must first ask for volunteers who give up their seat in return for an agreed benefit. If you are denied boarding against your will although you were at check-in on time and had valid documents, you are owed full compensation – in addition to a refund or replacement flight and care. If you volunteer, whatever you agree with the airline applies. You still get a refund or rebooking.

If you are downgraded to a lower class, the airline refunds part of the fare: 30 percent up to 1,500 kilometers, 50 percent for medium routes and 75 percent for all other flights. The basis is the proportionate price of the affected leg without taxes and fees. If you are upgraded, the airline may not charge a supplement.

Extraordinary circumstances: when the airline does not pay

The most important exception is in Article 5(3): the airline does not have to pay compensation if the disruption is due to extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even with all reasonable measures. The CJEU interprets this narrowly. What is meant are events that are not part of normal operations and that the airline cannot control.

Typically extraordinary	Typically not extraordinary
Storms, thunderstorms, heavy snowfall	most technical defects and maintenance problems
Instructions from air traffic control, airspace closures	strike by its own staff, including spontaneous waves of sick calls
Strike by air traffic controllers or airport staff	staff shortages and crew planning
Bird strike	delays from the previous rotation that trace back to its own causes
Security risks, political instability	Overbooking
depending on the individual case: medical emergency on board with a diversion

A few landmark rulings shape this list: in 2008, the CJEU clarified that technical problems in maintenance and operations are in principle part of the airline’s risk. In 2017, it treated a bird strike as extraordinary, while in 2018 it did not treat a “wildcat strike” through mass sick calls as such. Even after a genuine extraordinary circumstance, the airline must show that it did everything reasonable to keep the consequences small – for example through replacement aircraft or quick rebooking.

Winter weather is a borderline case. Snow and ice can be extraordinary, but routine de-icing on a normal winter day rather is not. The same goes for a diversion to an alternate airport: what matters is the trigger, not the diversion itself.

What to do at the airport

Many claims are not lost in a dispute but because the evidence is missing at the gate. These steps help:

1. Photograph the departure board with flight number, status and time. A departure and arrival board is simple evidence.
2. Ask for the reason and have it given to you in writing if possible. Note the name and time if you only get a verbal answer.
3. Keep your boarding pass and booking confirmation. For connecting itineraries, all legs.
4. Accept vouchers for food and hotel. If there are none, you may provide for yourself reasonably. Keep the receipts and keep the costs within reason.
5. Do not sign anything hastily. A voucher instead of money is only permissible if you expressly agree in writing. For a refund, you are entitled to money.
6. Note the actual arrival time, ideally the moment the door opens.

It also helps to look at the flight history. With flight tracker services, you can often trace whether the aircraft was already delayed on the previous rotation – a clue as to whether the airline’s explanation is plausible.

How to enforce your claim

Step 1: Write to the airline. Many airlines have their own online forms for compensation claims. State the flight number, date, booking code, the type of disruption, the arrival delay and the distance tier. Set a reasonable deadline, for example two weeks.

Step 2: Conciliation. If the airline refuses or does not respond, you can turn to a conciliation body in Germany. For airlines that belong to the sponsoring association, the Schlichtung Reise & Verkehr (Travel and Transport Conciliation) in Berlin is responsible (formerly söp). For airlines that do not take part in it, there is the Air Transport Conciliation Body (Schlichtungsstelle Luftverkehr) at the Federal Office of Justice. For passengers, conciliation is regularly free of charge according to the Federal Aviation Office (Luftfahrt-Bundesamt). The prerequisite is that you first contacted the airline directly without success.

Step 3: Court order for payment or lawsuit. If conciliation does not help either, the route via the judicial payment order procedure (Mahnverfahren) or a lawsuit remains. As a rule, the court at the place of departure or arrival is responsible.

The Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (Federal Aviation Office) is Germany’s national enforcement and complaints body. It supervises the airlines but does not enforce individual claims for you. A complaint there can make sense, but you will not get money this way.

Passenger rights portals take over enforcement in return for a commission. That is worthwhile mainly if you have no time or the airline stubbornly refuses. If the case is clear-cut, you keep more of the compensation without a portal.

Deadlines: The regulation itself names none. In Germany, according to case law, the regular limitation period of three years applies, counted from the end of the year in which the flight took place. A flight in October 2026 can therefore be claimed until the end of 2029. Other countries sometimes have shorter deadlines, and with the reform, a separate complaint deadline of twelve months toward the airline is added from October 23, 2027. So do not wait unnecessarily.

Special cases that often raise questions

• Package holiday: Package holidaymakers also have claims under EU 261 against the operating airline. In addition, travel defects may exist against the tour operator. You cannot collect twice, though – compensation payments can be offset.
• Separate tickets: If you booked two flights separately, each flight is considered individually. A missed connection on the second ticket is then your risk.
• Connecting outside the EU: If the trip starts in the EU and everything is on one booking, the claim can exist even if the delayed connection begins in a non-EU country. The CJEU confirmed this in 2018.
• Baggage: Lost, damaged or delayed bags are governed not by EU 261 but by the Montreal Convention with its own reporting deadlines: seven days for damage, 21 days for delay. If you are carrying expensive photo equipment, you should transport it in your carry-on luggage anyway.
• Free tickets and staff discounts: Anyone traveling on a fare not available to the public is generally not covered by the regulation. Award tickets from frequent flyer programs, on the other hand, are covered.

Reform of the regulation: what could change

The regulation had remained essentially unchanged since 2005. The European Commission already presented a reform proposal in 2013, but it made no progress for years. In 2025, the member states in the Council agreed on a position with higher delay thresholds, while the European Parliament held on to the three-hour limit. After a conciliation procedure, the reform was concluded in 2026: the amending regulation (EU) 2026/2202 was published in the Official Journal on October 2, 2026.

According to the published text, the key points remain: compensation for more than three hours of arrival delay is expressly written into the regulation, and the amounts of €250, €400 and €600 stay the same. New are, among other things, a non-exhaustive list of extraordinary circumstances in an annex and a deadline of twelve months for complaints to the airline. The new rules only apply from October 23, 2027. Until then, the previous version applies, as described above. For your claim, what always counts is the legal situation on the day of your flight.

Conclusion

For passengers, EU passenger rights are one of the strongest tools in European consumer law. If you arrive three hours late, are left without a flight at short notice or are left behind because of overbooking, you have good chances of €250 to €600. You are almost always entitled to care at the airport. The airline can only relieve itself with genuine extraordinary circumstances and has to prove them. With good documentation, a clear letter to the airline and, if necessary, free conciliation, in many cases you get your money without a lawyer. And if you are stuck anyway: a look at the spotting options when connecting makes the wait more bearable.