If your flight arrives three hours late, is cancelled at short notice, or you are bumped because the airline oversold it, European law may owe you a fixed cash payment. It is not a refund and it has nothing to do with what you paid: a €19 ticket and a €900 ticket on the same delayed flight earn the same amount.
The rule is Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, usually shortened to EU261. It is one of the more generous passenger rights schemes anywhere, and also one of the most misunderstood. This guide covers who is covered, how the money is calculated, the "extraordinary circumstances" escape hatch airlines rely on, and how to claim without handing a third of the payout to an agency.
Which flights are covered
EU261 applies to a flight if either of these is true (Your Europe, the EU's official guide):
- It departs from an airport in the EU, whatever the airline. Turkish Airlines from Rome or Emirates from Milan are covered on that leg.
- It arrives in the EU from outside, and the operating airline is an EU carrier. Lufthansa from New York to Frankfurt is covered; United on the same route is not.
Your Europe adds that the rules also apply to flights to and from Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. The catch is the operating airline, not the one on your ticket: a codeshare sold by an EU airline but flown by a non-EU one into the EU is generally not covered.
The UK left the EU, but it copied the regulation into its own law. More on that below.
How much: the three bands
Compensation depends on the flight distance, measured along the great circle (the shortest path over the globe, which our post on why flight paths curve explains). For a delay, what counts is how late you reach your final destination, not how late you took off.
| Distance | Arrival delay | Compensation |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 1,500 km | 3 hours or more | €250 |
| Over 1,500 km within the EU, or 1,500 to 3,500 km otherwise | 3 hours or more | €400 |
| Over 3,500 km, flight to or from outside the EU | 3 to 4 hours | €300 |
| Over 3,500 km, flight to or from outside the EU | 4 hours or more | €600 |
The amounts and thresholds come from Your Europe's passenger rights page.
The band edges matter more than people expect. Using great-circle distances from our Cagliari data:
- Cagliari to Amsterdam is about 1,489 km: €250 band.
- Cagliari to London Gatwick is about 1,505 km: €400 band, because the UK is now outside the EU and the flight is in the 1,500 to 3,500 km range.
- Cagliari to Dublin is about 1,958 km: €400, because it is an intra-EU flight over 1,500 km.
- Cagliari to Tel Aviv is about 2,459 km: €400, covered because it departs the EU.
Airlines and courts may compute distance slightly differently, so treat a route within a few kilometres of a boundary as uncertain. You can see the distance of any route on our Cagliari page or any other airport map.
Why a delay counts at all
The original text of EU261 only promised compensation for cancellations and denied boarding. The Court of Justice of the EU extended it to long delays in the Sturgeon ruling (C-402/07), holding that passengers who reach their destination three hours or more late suffer a comparable loss. A later ruling, Germanwings (C-452/13), fixed the arrival time as the moment at least one aircraft door opens and passengers can leave. Touchdown at 2 hours 58 minutes late followed by twenty minutes on the taxiway still counts as more than three hours.
Cancellations and denied boarding
If your flight is cancelled, you are owed compensation unless the airline told you early enough or gave you a close enough alternative. Your Europe summarises the notice rules:
- Told 14 days or more before departure: no compensation.
- Told 7 to 14 days before: no compensation if the replacement departs no more than 2 hours earlier and arrives less than 4 hours later than planned.
- Told less than 7 days before: no compensation if the replacement departs no more than 1 hour earlier and arrives less than 2 hours later.
Whatever the notice, a cancelled flight always gives you a choice between a full refund and rerouting. If the airline reroutes you and you arrive only a little late, it can cut the payout by 50% (to €125, €200 or €300 by band).
Denied boarding against your will, usually because of overbooking, earns the same banded amounts. If you volunteer to give up your seat in exchange for vouchers or cash, you are negotiating a deal and the fixed compensation no longer applies.
Right to care: what you get while you wait
Separate from compensation, and owed even when the cause is outside the airline's control, is the right to care. Once your delay reaches 2 hours (short flights), 3 hours (medium) or 4 hours (long), the airline must provide meals and refreshments in proportion to the wait, and a hotel plus transport if the delay runs overnight. If the delay reaches 5 hours you can abandon the trip and get a refund.
If staff hand out nothing, buy reasonable food and a reasonable hotel and keep every receipt. You can claim those costs back afterwards. "Reasonable" is the key word: a sandwich and a mid-range airport hotel, not a tasting menu.
Extraordinary circumstances
Article 5(3) of the regulation excuses the airline from paying compensation (but not from providing care) if the problem was caused by extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even with all reasonable measures. This is where most disputes happen.
Usually accepted as extraordinary:
- Severe weather that makes flying unsafe
- Air traffic control restrictions and strikes by air traffic controllers
- Security risks and political instability
- Bird strikes (Pešková, C-315/15), and a hidden manufacturing defect that the manufacturer or an aviation authority reveals
Usually not extraordinary:
- Routine technical faults. In Wallentin-Hermann (C-549/07) the court held that a technical problem found during maintenance is part of the normal activity of running an airline.
- Strikes by the airline's own staff, including strikes called by a union. The court confirmed this in SAS (C-28/20).
- Crew shortages and "operational reasons", which on their own explain nothing.
Two practical points. First, the airline has to prove the circumstances, not you. Second, a knock-on delay counts: if the inbound aircraft was late because of a fault on an earlier flight, the cause of your delay is still that fault. A vague "due to operational reasons" email is worth pushing back on.
How to claim it yourself
You do not need a lawyer or an agency for a straightforward claim.
- Collect evidence at the airport. Photograph the departures board, keep your boarding pass, and ask staff for the stated reason in writing. Note the time the doors opened at your destination.
- Check the actual arrival time. Flight tracking sites show block times, but the door-opening time is what counts, so your own note helps.
- Claim directly with the airline. Most have an EU261 form on their website. Give the flight number, date, booking reference, names, the delay in hours, and the amount you are claiming under Article 7. Ask for payment in money: under Article 7(3) the airline can only pay in vouchers with your signed agreement.
- Escalate if refused. If the airline does not answer within two months or rejects you without a convincing reason, Your Europe says you can complain to the national enforcement body in the country where the incident happened. Many countries also have alternative dispute resolution schemes, and the European Small Claims Procedure handles cross-border claims up to €5,000.
Each passenger claims separately, including children with a seat. A family of four on a cancelled Cagliari to Dublin flight could be owed €400 each.
How far back can you go? The regulation sets no deadline, and the court ruled in Cuadrench Moré (C-139/11) that national limitation periods apply. These vary a lot between countries, so check the rule where you would bring the claim before assuming an old flight is still claimable.
Claim agencies: when they are worth it
Claim companies take the case off your hands and keep a share of the payout if they win. As one example, AirHelp's published price list shows a 35% service fee, plus a further 15% legal action fee if the claim goes to court. On a €400 claim that is up to €200 gone.
| Claim yourself | Use an agency | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Nothing, unless you go to court | A percentage of the payout, often a third or more |
| Effort | A form, then possibly an escalation | One form |
| Best for | Clear-cut delays and cancellations | Claims the airline keeps ignoring, or court cases you do not want to run |
| Risk | You handle any refusal | Fees can take half if a lawsuit is needed |
A sensible approach: claim directly first. If the airline stonewalls for months, an agency or the national enforcement body is still available.
UK261 after Brexit
The UK kept the regulation in domestic law, usually called UK261. It covers flights departing UK airports, and flights arriving in the UK on UK or EU airlines. The amounts are fixed in pounds: the Civil Aviation Authority lists £220 for flights under 1,500 km, £350 for 1,500 to 3,500 km, and £520 for longer flights (£260 if you arrive three to four hours late). If the airline does not resolve it within eight weeks, you escalate to its ADR scheme or, if it has none, to the CAA's complaints team.
A flight from an EU airport to the UK on an EU airline can fall under both schemes, but you can only be paid once for the same disruption.
Changes on the way
The EU has been reworking passenger rights for more than a decade. The Parliament and Council reached a political agreement on a revised text on 15 June 2026, and the Council formally adopted it on 13 July 2026 (LexisNexis summary). Analysis by the law firm Burges Salmon describes the compensation amounts and the three-hour threshold as unchanged. The additions include a standard list of extraordinary circumstances, a ban on denying boarding on a return flight because you skipped the outbound, a standard cabin bag included in the base fare, and free adjacent seating for an adult travelling with a child under 14. The new rules only start to apply about a year after publication in the Official Journal, so the current regulation described above is what governs a disruption today, and will be well into 2027.
If you are weighing whether a connection is worth the risk at all, our guide to nonstop vs connecting flights weighs the trade-offs, and how to find direct flights helps you avoid them.
Frequently asked questions
Do I get compensation if my flight departs late but arrives less than three hours late?
No. Compensation depends on arrival delay at your final destination. A flight that leaves 3.5 hours late but makes up time and arrives 2 hours 50 minutes late earns nothing, though you are still owed care during the wait.
Does EU261 cover connecting flights?
Yes, when the whole journey is on a single booking. The delay is measured at the final destination and the distance from first departure to final destination. Separate tickets are treated as separate journeys.
Can the airline pay me in vouchers?
Only if you agree in writing. You are entitled to money (cash, bank transfer or cheque). Vouchers are sometimes worth more in face value, but they come with expiry dates and restrictions.
Is bad weather always an extraordinary circumstance?
Not automatically. Weather that genuinely made the flight unsafe usually qualifies, but the airline still has to show it caused your specific delay and that reasonable measures could not have avoided it. "Weather" at a different airport hours earlier deserves a closer look.
Does it matter what I paid for the ticket?
No. Compensation is a fixed amount by distance and delay. Award tickets bought with miles are generally covered too, but free tickets not available to the public, such as staff travel, are not.