The EU261 reform: what applies from October 2027
After more than twelve years of negotiation the amendment is law. Flights up to 22 October 2027 keep the current rules.
Your compensation · STR · Stuttgart → TFS · Tenerife
€0
No compensation owed
- EU261 as amended by Regulation 2026/2202 (from 23 Oct 2027)0 · not owed
Under the amended rules the delay has to exceed three hours.
Flight on or after 23 October 2027: Regulation (EU) 2026/2202 applies (delay “exceeding three hours”, 9-month claim window).
- Great-circle distance
- 3,184 km
- Distance band
- 1,500 to 3,500 km
- Claim to the airline (new rules, 9 months)
- 5 August 2028
- Time limit in Germany (BGB s. 195, 199)
- 31 December 2030
Prepared by Radif Partners · Method · law as of October 22, 2026 · 4,008 airports (OurAirports)
Regulation (EU) 2026/2202 amends EU261. It was signed on 16 September 2026, published in the Official Journal on 2 October 2026 and applies to flights from 23 October 2027. The amounts stay at €250, €400 and €600. A delay must now exceed three hours; arriving exactly three hours late is no longer enough. On long-haul routes the airline may halve the payment when the delay is four hours or less. For cancellations with less than 14 days’ notice there is a single test: a replacement leaving no more than one hour early and arriving less than two hours late. An annex lists examples of extraordinary circumstances, and an own-staff strike excuses the airline only when the demands can be met by public authorities alone. New duties and deadlines: information within 96 hours, a claim within nine months of the flight, an answer within 30 days, self-rerouting after three hours without an offer up to 400% of the fare, and missed connections in a new Article 6b. UK261 is not affected: flights from the UK keep the current rules, but UK travellers flying back from the EU will meet the new ones.
One flight, two sets of rules
Stuttgart to Tenerife, 3,184 km, exactly three hours late. On 20 October 2027 that pays €400. The same flight on 5 November 2027 pays nothing, because the delay now has to exceed three hours. One minute more and it is €400 again.
A UK holiday in November 2027
Gatwick to Málaga on a UK airline, exactly three hours late both ways. Outbound, UK261 applies and still pays £350 at three hours. On the way back the flight departs from the EU, so the amended EU text applies and pays nothing at exactly three hours. UK261 also covers that return, because it lands in the UK on a UK airline, and it still pays £350 at three hours. The same holds on an EU airline, since UK261 covers arrivals in the UK on UK and EU carriers alike; only on an airline from elsewhere does the return fall under the EU text alone.
Before and after: the same delay
EU261 today
€300
| EU261 from 23 Oct 2027 | nothing |
| UK261 | £260 |
The mini calculator is set to a long-haul flight exactly three hours late: today the reduced half, from October 2027 nothing, while UK261 still pays half. At 4 hours the current rules pay in full and the new ones half, because the reduction now runs up to and including four hours.
What changes, point by point
| Point | Until 22 Oct 2027 | From 23 Oct 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Amounts | €250, €400, €600 | €250, €400, €600 |
| Delay threshold | 3 hours or more (case law) | more than 3 hours (in the text) |
| Long-haul reduction | under 4 hours | up to and including 4 hours |
| Cancellation, 7 to 14 days | replacement 2 h early, under 4 h late | replacement 1 h early, under 2 h late |
| Extraordinary circumstances | case law | annex of examples, not exhaustive |
| Information to passengers | no fixed deadline | within 96 hours |
| Claim to the airline | no deadline (limitation only) | within 9 months, answer in 30 days |
| Booking your own rerouting | not regulated | after 3 h without an offer, up to 400% of the fare |
| Missed connection | case law (Folkerts) | Article 6b: more than 3 h at final destination |
Where the reform comes from
The Commission proposed it in 2013, and procedure 2013/0072(COD) ran for more than a decade. The text appeared in the Official Journal of 2 October 2026, signed on 16 September 2026. Until 22 October 2027 the current EU261 and the Court of Justice’s case law apply unchanged. UK261 is a separate copy that the EU reform does not touch, and no UK reform had been adopted by October 2026. Related pages: cancelled flights, strikes and time limits.