Flight delay compensation: your amount, your letter, all of the money

Two questions decide coverage: where the flight departs, and which airline operates it. Under UK261, any departure from a UK airport is covered whatever the airline; so is an arrival in the UK on a UK or EU airline, and an arrival in the EU on a UK airline. Under EU261, any departure from the EU, Iceland, Norway or Switzerland is covered, and an arrival in the EU only if an EU-licensed airline operates the flight. In practice a UK holidaymaker is usually covered both ways: outbound by UK261, and on the way home by EU261 because the flight departs from the EU, often by UK261 as well.

The claim goes to the operating airline, the one named after “operated by” on your boarding pass, not necessarily the one you paid. Package holidaymakers also claim from the airline. You need a confirmed booking and must have turned up for check-in on time. Tickets bought with frequent flyer points are covered. Long-haul flights home from outside Europe on a non-UK, non-EU airline are the main gap: neither scheme applies to them.

Delay. The 2004 text only gave care for delays. In Sturgeon the Court of Justice held in 2009 that arriving three hours or more late must be compensated like a cancellation, and UK261 is read the same way. The clock runs until a door opens at the final destination.

Cancellation. Compensation is due when you were told less than 14 days before and the replacement departs or arrives too far from the original times: with 7 to 14 days’ notice it may leave up to two hours early and arrive less than four hours late, with less than 7 days up to one hour early and less than two hours late.

Denied boarding. If a flight is overbooked and not enough passengers volunteer, those turned away against their will must be compensated immediately, with no weather or strike excuse. In all three situations the amount is the same, and it can be halved if the airline gets you to your destination with only a modest delay.

The most common reply to a claim is “extraordinary circumstances”. That covers events outside the normal running of an airline and beyond its control: severe weather, air traffic control restrictions, strikes by air traffic controllers or airport staff, security threats. Even then, the airline must show it took all reasonable measures to avoid or limit the disruption.

Routine technical faults, staff shortages, sickness and strikes by the airline’s own crew are not extraordinary under case law. A knock-on delay from an earlier flight is not automatically excused either: it depends on what caused the first delay and what was done afterwards. If you are refused, ask for the specific cause, the place and the time. The Civil Aviation Authority uses the same approach for UK261. More: extraordinary circumstances.

Compensation is only part of your rights. From two hours of departure delay on short routes, three on medium and four on long, the airline must provide meals and drinks, a hotel and transfers if you are stuck overnight, and two calls or emails. Care is owed even in bad weather. If your flight is cancelled, or delayed by five hours or more, you can choose a refund of the ticket instead, payable within seven days.

If you are moved to a lower cabin, the airline refunds 30, 50 or 75% of that flight’s fare depending on distance. Vouchers instead of cash need your written agreement. Extra costs caused by the disruption, such as a hotel night you could not use at your destination, can be claimed on top as damages, though the airline may deduct the fixed compensation from them.

Canada uses a different model. The Air Passenger Protection Regulations pay by length of delay rather than distance, when the cause is within the airline’s control and not required for safety: for a large airline $400 from three hours, $700 from six and $1,000 from nine; for a small airline $125, $250 and $500. The claim must reach the airline within one year, and the airline must answer within 30 days. A strike within the airline counts as outside its control there. Amendments have been proposed but not adopted. Details: flight compensation in Canada.

After a procedure that began in 2013, the amendment of EU261 has been adopted. The amounts stay; the delay must now exceed three hours; long-haul payments may be halved up to and including four hours; cancellations under 14 days’ notice have a single replacement test; and an annex lists examples of extraordinary circumstances.

The change travellers will notice most is the deadline: claims must reach the airline within nine months of the flight, and the airline must answer within 30 days. Airlines must also inform passengers within 96 hours, passengers may rebook themselves if no solution is offered within three hours, and missed connections are expressly covered. UK261 is not affected, but your flights home from the EU will be. See EU261 reform 2027.

First, check the amount in the calculator and generate the letter. Second, send it to the operating airline through its claim form or by email, with your boarding pass and booking confirmation, and give a deadline of two to four weeks. Third, if the airline refuses or does not resolve the claim, take a UK flight to the airline’s approved dispute resolution body, or to the Civil Aviation Authority if the airline belongs to none; for flights from Germany, use the German arbitration body. Fourth, if needed, the small claims court in England and Wales, the simple procedure in Scotland, or the European small claims procedure for cross-border cases. Details: claiming step by step and time limits.

Distance is computed from the coordinates of both airports using the great-circle method on a sphere of 6,371 km radius. Every amount, threshold and deadline comes from a single parameter file based on the official texts and is never typed into the pages by hand. Whether an event really was extraordinary is something the calculator cannot know: it shows how a given cause is usually treated, and the final word in a dispute belongs to the ADR body, the arbitration body or the court.

These pages are published by Radif Partners. They explain the rules as published and as interpreted by the courts, do not replace legal advice on a specific case, and do not speak for any authority, airline or court.