EU Regulation 261/2004: flight delay compensation

Under EU Regulation 261/2004 you are entitled to a fixed compensation of EUR 250, 400 or 600 if your flight is cancelled at short notice, if you are denied boarding, or if you reach your final destination three hours or more late. The airline does not have to pay if it proves that the disruption was caused by extraordinary circumstances that it could not have avoided even with all reasonable measures.

The Regulation applies to every flight departing from an airport in the European Union and to flights arriving in the EU that are operated by an EU airline. The compensation is owed by the operating airline, does not depend on the ticket price, and comes on top of any refund and the meals, calls and hotel accommodation the airline must provide during the disruption.

Does Regulation 261/2004 apply to your flight?

That depends on where the flight departs and which airline operates it, not on your nationality or where you bought the ticket. Every departure from an EU airport is covered; an arrival in the EU from outside is covered only if an EU airline operates the flight.

A flight from New York to Amsterdam therefore falls under the Regulation if KLM operates it, but not if a US airline does. A flight from Amsterdam to New York is covered either way.

The Regulation also applies in Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein through the Agreement on the European Economic Area, and in Switzerland under the air transport agreement between the EU and Switzerland. It applies in the EU’s outermost regions, such as the Canary Islands, Madeira, the Azores and the French overseas departments. It does not apply in the United Kingdom, which has kept its own version of the rules since Brexit. A flight from London to Amsterdam on a British airline is governed by the UK rules, not by Regulation 261/2004.

Which conditions must you meet yourself?

You must have a confirmed reservation and check in on time, and your ticket must have been available to the public. Staff tickets and other non-public fares are excluded.

On time means at the time the airline indicated or, if it gave no time, at the latest 45 minutes before the published departure time. This condition does not apply if the flight is cancelled, because there is then nothing to check in for. Tickets issued under a frequent flyer programme do count.

Two further limits are easily missed. If you are flying into the EU from a non-EU country and have already received compensation and assistance there, the Regulation does not apply again to the same disruption. And if the flight is part of a package holiday, the Regulation applies alongside the package travel rules. You may have rights against both the airline and the tour operator, but you cannot recover the same loss twice.

What about connecting flights?

Connecting flights booked on one reservation count as one journey. The Court of Justice of the European Union has held that if you miss a connection because the first flight was delayed and you reach your final destination three hours or more late, you are entitled to compensation, even if the delay of the first flight itself was shorter. If the whole journey was booked with an EU airline on one reservation, this also applies to a leg operated outside the EU by a partner airline.

What can you claim?

The Regulation gives you four separate rights: care, a refund or re-routing, compensation and, if you are downgraded, a partial refund. Airlines sometimes present one of these as if it settled the others, but a hotel room does not replace compensation, and a refund does not replace care.

Care during the wait

Care means meals and refreshments in reasonable relation to the waiting time, two telephone calls or messages and, if you have to stay overnight, a hotel room and transport between the airport and the hotel. You are entitled to care once the waiting time reaches two hours for flights of 1,500 km or less, three hours for longer flights within the EU and other flights of 1,500 to 3,500 km, and four hours for all other flights.

If the airline provides nothing, buy what is reasonable, keep the receipts and claim the costs back. That is a separate claim from the compensation.

Refund or re-routing

You choose between a refund and re-routing, not the airline. You can ask for a full refund of the unused part of the ticket within seven days, together with a return flight to your first point of departure if the journey no longer serves any purpose. Alternatively, you can choose re-routing to your final destination at the earliest opportunity, or at a later date that suits you. An airline that simply rebooks you without asking has not complied with the Regulation.

Compensation and downgrading

Compensation is the fixed amount explained below. It is due unless the airline proves extraordinary circumstances, and you do not have to show that you suffered any financial loss.

If you are placed in a lower class than the one you paid for, the airline must refund a percentage of the ticket price, rising with the distance of the flight: 30%, 50% or 75%. An upgrade, on the other hand, may not be charged to you.

How much compensation can you claim?

The amount depends only on the flight distance: EUR 250, 400 or 600 per passenger. The ticket price plays no role.

Under Article 7 of the Regulation, compensation is EUR 250 for flights of 1,500 km or less, EUR 400 for flights within the EU of more than 1,500 km and for other flights of 1,500 to 3,500 km, and EUR 600 for all other flights. The distance is measured by the great circle method between the departure airport and the final destination. A passenger who paid EUR 49 for a seat and a passenger who paid EUR 1,900 for the seat next to it receive the same amount.

Because the calculation runs to the final destination, a journey on one reservation is measured from start to finish. A trip from Amsterdam to Bangkok with a change in Dubai is one journey of more than 3,500 km, not two shorter flights. An airline that splits the route in its own calculation understates what it owes.

When may the airline pay half?

The airline may reduce the compensation by 50% in one situation only. It must have offered you re-routing to your final destination, and that alternative flight must have arrived no more than two hours (short band), three hours (middle band) or four hours (long band) after the original scheduled arrival time. If you declined re-routing and took a refund, the reduction does not apply. The airline must prove that it offered suitable re-routing and that you arrived within that window.

Delay, cancellation or denied boarding: which applies to you?

The Regulation distinguishes three events, and each gives different rights. Airlines have an interest in calling a cancellation a delay, so it helps to know the difference.

Long delay

The text of the Regulation gives delayed passengers care, and a refund once the delay reaches five hours, but no compensation. The right to compensation for delay comes from the Court of Justice. In Sturgeon (2009), confirmed in Nelson (2012), the Court held that passengers who reach their final destination three hours or more late lose the same amount of time as passengers whose flight is cancelled, and must be treated the same way.

Arrival time is the moment at least one aircraft door opens and passengers may leave the aircraft. It is not the moment of landing, nor the moment the aircraft reaches the gate. In a borderline case this decides the claim, so a photo with a timestamp of the door opening is worth more than an argument afterwards.

Cancellation

A cancellation gives you care, the choice between refund and re-routing, and compensation, but compensation depends on how much notice you received. No compensation is due if the airline informed you at least two weeks before the scheduled departure.

If you were told between two weeks and seven days before departure, compensation lapses only if you were offered re-routing that departed no more than two hours before the original departure time and arrived less than four hours after the original arrival time. With less than seven days’ notice, those windows narrow to one hour earlier and two hours later. Outside those windows, you are entitled to full compensation.

The operating airline must prove that it informed you and when. An entry in the airline’s own system does not by itself prove that the message reached you. If you booked through a travel agent, the airline remains responsible for informing you.

Denied boarding

Denied boarding covers more than overbooking. It is any refusal to carry a passenger who presented on time with a confirmed reservation, unless there are reasonable grounds such as missing travel documents or reasons of health, safety or security.

Before refusing passengers against their will, the airline must ask for volunteers who give up their seat in exchange for benefits agreed with the airline. Volunteers keep their right to a refund or re-routing. If there are not enough volunteers and you are refused boarding, compensation is due immediately, at the same amounts, together with care and the choice between refund and re-routing. There is no waiting period and no need to show a delay on arrival.

Under Article 15 of the Regulation, your rights cannot be limited or waived in advance. A clause in the airline’s conditions of carriage that tries to exclude them has no effect.

When can the airline rely on extraordinary circumstances?

Only if it proves two things: an extraordinary event, and that it took all reasonable measures to avoid the cancellation or delay. The burden of proof lies entirely with the airline.

The Court of Justice has held that an event is extraordinary only if it is not inherent in the normal exercise of the airline’s activity and is beyond its actual control. The case law gives a fairly clear picture.

• Technical problems are normally not extraordinary. A defect discovered during maintenance, or caused by wear and tear, is part of running an airline, even if it appears without warning. The exceptions are narrow: a hidden manufacturing defect disclosed by the manufacturer or an authority, sabotage or terrorism, and damage from an external event such as a bird strike or a foreign object on the runway.
• Strikes depend on who is striking. A strike by air traffic controllers or airport staff is external to the airline and can be extraordinary. A strike by the airline’s own pilots or cabin crew, including one called by a trade union during ordinary collective bargaining, is not. The same applies to a sudden mass sick leave of staff after a company announcement.
• Weather counts only if it actually prevented the flight. Conditions that make take-off or landing unsafe, or the closure of an airport or airspace, can qualify. It is not enough for an airline to point to bad weather earlier in the day or at another airport without showing why this flight could not operate despite reasonable rescheduling.
• An extraordinary cause is only half of the defence. The airline must also show that it took all reasonable measures, such as using a reserve aircraft or crew, or re-routing you on another airline’s flight. An airline that had a way to get you there and did not use it cannot rely on the extraordinary circumstance.

A one-line refusal citing operational or technical reasons is therefore not a valid defence. Ask the airline which event it relies on, on what date and at what time, and what measures it took. Airlines that cannot answer these questions usually pay.

How do you make a claim, and how long do you have?

Collect evidence on the day itself and then claim in writing from the operating airline. Do not wait: the limitation period in the Netherlands is not fully settled, so act within two years of the flight.

At the airport, ask the ground staff for the reason in writing, photograph the departure board and the time when the doors open on arrival, and keep your boarding pass and booking confirmation. If the airline provides no meals or hotel, buy what is reasonable and keep the receipts. Evidence gathered at the airport is worth far more than a reconstruction months later.

Then write to the operating airline, not to the travel agent or ticket seller, because the Regulation places the obligations on the airline that operated or was to operate the flight. State the flight number and date, the booking reference, what happened, the distance band and the exact amount you claim, and attach your evidence. Set a reasonable deadline for payment and keep proof that you sent the letter.

If the airline refuses or does not reply, you can complain to the national enforcement body. In the Netherlands that is the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport, ILT), for flights departing from Dutch airports and for flights to the Netherlands operated by EU airlines. The ILT supervises compliance and can act against airlines that structurally fail to meet their obligations, but it does not order payment to an individual passenger. For the money, you need the airline’s agreement or a court judgment.

Which limitation period applies?

The Regulation itself contains no limitation period. In Cuadrench Moré (22 November 2012, C-139/11), the Court of Justice held that the two-year period of the Montreal Convention does not apply to these claims and that national law decides. The periods therefore differ widely across the EU.

In the Netherlands the position is not fully settled. Some courts apply the two-year period for claims against an air carrier in Article 8:1835 of the Dutch Civil Code (BW), others the general five-year period for contractual claims. Because this difference can decide whether your claim survives, the safest course is to assume the shorter period and to claim, or interrupt limitation in writing, well before the second anniversary of your flight.

How do you enforce a claim in the Netherlands?

You can usually bring the claim before a Dutch subdistrict court (kantonrechter) if your flight departed from or arrived in the Netherlands. You do not need a lawyer there, and the procedure is relatively quick and inexpensive.

For flights within the EU, the Court of Justice allows you to sue at the place of departure or the place of arrival, as you choose, and you can also sue the airline where it is established. If your flight departed from Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Rotterdam or Maastricht, you can therefore bring your claim in the Netherlands even if the airline is based elsewhere in the EU.

Compensation claims are almost always well below EUR 25,000, the limit for the subdistrict court. Court fees are payable in advance on a statutory scale that is indexed each year, and the losing party is normally ordered to pay a fixed contribution towards the winner’s costs. Our overview of small claims procedures in the Netherlands explains how these cases run, and our page on civil law sets out the wider procedural framework.

If the airline is established in another EU country and you prefer to sue there, the European Small Claims Procedure is often the cheapest route. A Dutch judgment can in any case be enforced elsewhere in the EU without a separate declaration of enforceability. Our European law team regularly handles claims against airlines established outside the Netherlands.

Which claims fall outside the Regulation?

Regulation 261/2004 compensates lost time in a standard way, and nothing else. Lost or damaged baggage, assistance for passengers with reduced mobility and further financial loss are governed by other rules.

Lost, damaged or delayed baggage falls under the Montreal Convention, which applies in the EU through Regulation (EC) 2027/97. Liability is capped at an amount expressed in special drawing rights, which is reviewed periodically. You must report the damage to the airline within short deadlines: for damaged baggage within seven days of receipt, for delayed baggage within 21 days. You must prove your actual loss, as there is no fixed amount. Declaring a higher value at check-in for a supplement raises the cap.

Passengers with a disability or reduced mobility are protected by Regulation (EC) 1107/2006. Airports and airlines must provide assistance free of charge and may refuse carriage on grounds of disability only for safety reasons or where the size of the aircraft makes it impossible. Notifying your needs in advance, at least 48 hours before departure, secures the best service.

Further damage, such as a missed connection on a separate booking, a wasted hotel night or a lost business day, can be claimed under ordinary contract law and the Montreal Convention. Article 12 of the Regulation preserves that right, although the fixed compensation may be deducted. These claims require proof of your loss.

Should you use a claim agency?

You can, but it costs you a share of your compensation. Claiming yourself costs no more than a letter, and you can still instruct a lawyer if the airline refuses.

Many passengers hand their claim to a commercial claim agency in exchange for a percentage of the amount recovered, often a third or more. That is a legitimate arrangement. Under Article 3:94 BW a money claim can be assigned by deed and notice to the debtor, and Dutch courts accept assigned passenger claims. The agency keeps its share even if the airline pays in full without any resistance, and some agencies accept a lower settlement because a quick partial payment suits their business model.

If you win in court, the airline is ordered to pay a contribution towards your legal costs. For a group on the same booking, the amounts add up quickly: compensation is per passenger, so a family of four on a long-haul flight can claim up to EUR 2,400 in total. Airlines sometimes challenge assignments on technical grounds, which causes delay that a passenger claiming in his or her own name does not face.

What must airlines and travel businesses do?

Airlines must inform passengers of their rights, both at check-in and in writing when a flight is disrupted. Tour operators and ticket sellers can also be held responsible.

Under Article 14 of the Regulation, the operating airline must display a clearly legible notice at check-in telling passengers where to find the text of their rights. Every passenger affected by denied boarding, cancellation or a delay of at least two hours must receive a written notice setting out the rules on compensation and assistance, with the contact details of the national enforcement body. Failure to inform is a breach in itself, regardless of whether compensation is later paid.

Member states must set penalties for infringements. In the Netherlands, the ILT supervises compliance and can take administrative measures against airlines operating from Dutch airports. Complaints to the ILT feed into that supervision even when they do not lead to payment in the individual case, which is a reason to file one.

For travel businesses, the risk is different. A tour operator that sells a flight as part of a package remains responsible under the package travel rules for performing the whole package and cannot simply refer the traveller to the airline. A ticket seller that fails to pass on a schedule change from the airline may have to account for compensation the passenger lost as a result. Contracts between tour operators, agents and airlines should therefore allocate the duty to inform expressly, because passengers will pursue whoever is easiest to reach.

What changes with the 2026 revision?

The EU has agreed on a revision, but it does not yet apply. Until the amending regulation enters into application, the current Regulation, as interpreted by the Court of Justice, governs every claim.

The revision has been under discussion since 2013. On 15 June 2026 the Conciliation Committee of the European Parliament and the Council reached agreement on a joint text amending Regulation 261/2004 and Regulation 2027/97. The text must still be revised by lawyer-linguists, formally adopted by both institutions and published in the Official Journal. Do not assume a date of application until that has happened.

On the points that matter most to passengers, the agreed text writes the three-hour arrival delay threshold into the Regulation itself, rather than leaving it to case law, and keeps the compensation amounts of EUR 250, 400 and 600. The EU publishes an overview of current air passenger rights on Your Europe.

What should you do if your flight is disrupted?

Find out at the airport which of the three events has occurred, record the times, and insist on care. Afterwards, claim in writing from the operating airline and keep an eye on the limitation period.

Ask for the reason in writing and note the moment the doors open on arrival. If the airline provides no care once the waiting threshold is reached, buy what is reasonable and keep the receipts. Choose deliberately between a refund and re-routing instead of accepting whatever the airline books for you.

Claim the amount that matches your distance band. Do not accept a voucher instead of money unless you really prefer it, because accepting it may be treated as a settlement. If the airline refuses, ask it to identify the extraordinary circumstance and the measures it took, complain to the ILT, and do not let the limitation period run out while you wait for an answer.

In summary

• Regulation 261/2004 covers all flights departing from the EU and flights into the EU operated by an EU airline.
• Compensation is EUR 250, 400 or 600 per passenger, depending on distance, for a delay of three hours or more on arrival, a late cancellation or denied boarding.
• The airline must also provide care and let you choose between a refund and re-routing.
• The airline escapes compensation only if it proves extraordinary circumstances and that it took all reasonable measures; technical defects rarely qualify.
• Claim in writing from the operating airline, and act within two years of the flight.

Frequently asked questions

Law & More assists passengers and businesses with claims under Regulation 261/2004, from the first letter to the airline to proceedings before the Dutch courts, and advises airlines and travel businesses on their obligations. Unsure where you stand? Tell us about your situation. We will let you know your options within one working day.