Delayed Flight Compensation Under EU261: The Complete Guide

The 3-Hour Rule: Arrival Time Is What Counts

EU261 compensation kicks in when you reach your final destination three or more hours late. The key word is arrival. A flight that leaves four hours late but makes up time in the air and lands 2 hours 55 minutes behind schedule pays nothing. A flight that leaves only slightly late but gets you in 3 hours 10 minutes behind schedule can pay in full.

Two details matter. First, 'arrival' means the moment at least one aircraft door opens at the gate — not touchdown. The Court of Justice of the EU settled this, and those extra taxi-and-parking minutes often push a 2h50m delay past the three-hour line. Second, the right to compensation for delays isn't spelled out in the regulation's text. It comes from the Sturgeon ruling (C-402/07), where the court decided that passengers delayed three hours or more must be treated like passengers whose flights were cancelled. Airlines have tested that ruling many times since. It stands.

How Much Are You Owed?

Compensation is a fixed amount based on the distance of your flight, not your ticket price. A €30 budget fare and a €3,000 business-class seat earn exactly the same payout:

One reduction to know about: on those longest routes (over 3,500 km and not within the EU), the airline can halve the €600 to €300 if your arrival delay is between three and four hours. That's Article 7(2) of the regulation. Once you're four or more hours late, the full €600 applies.

Flying to or from the UK? UK261 — Britain's post-Brexit copy of the rules — mirrors all of this with payouts of £220, £350 and £520.

• €250 — flights of 1,500 km or less
• €400 — flights within the EU longer than 1,500 km, and all other flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km
• €600 — all other flights longer than 3,500 km

Your Right to Care Starts at Two Hours

Compensation isn't your only right. After a delay of around two hours (the exact threshold varies slightly by flight distance), the airline must look after you: meals and drinks in reasonable relation to the waiting time, plus two free phone calls or emails.

If the delay pushes your departure to the next day, the airline must also provide a hotel room and transport to and from it. This 'right to care' applies even when the delay is caused by something outside the airline's control — bad weather doesn't cancel your sandwich. If the airline does nothing, pay for reasonable expenses yourself, keep every receipt, and claim the money back later.

When Airlines Don't Have to Pay: Extraordinary Circumstances

Airlines escape compensation (though never the duty of care) when the delay was caused by 'extraordinary circumstances' — events outside their control that couldn't have been avoided even with all reasonable measures. Think severe weather, air traffic control restrictions, security alerts, or a bird strike.

Airlines stretch this excuse hard, so know the case law. In Wallentin-Hermann, the EU court ruled that technical faults are usually NOT extraordinary — maintenance problems are part of running an airline. And in Airhelp v SAS (C-28/20, decided in 2021), the court held that a strike by the airline's own staff isn't extraordinary either. If the airline blames a vague 'operational issue', push back and ask for evidence. We cover the whole defence in detail in our extraordinary circumstances guide.

How to Prove Your Delay

The airline knows exactly how late you were, but having your own evidence makes your claim much harder to dodge. Collect it on the day if you can:

Flight-tracking sites keep historical data, so you can still pull arrival times weeks later — but screenshots taken on the day are the cleanest proof you'll ever have.

• Keep your boarding pass — paper, or a screenshot of the digital one
• Screenshot the airline app showing the delay and the new arrival time
• Look up the flight on FlightAware or Flightradar24 — both record actual gate arrival times
• Photograph departure boards and note any announcements
• Keep receipts for food, transport and hotel costs

How to Claim Directly — It's Free

You don't need anyone's help to claim. Most airlines have a compensation or 'EU261' form on their website; if you can't find one, email customer relations. Here's the whole process:

That's it. No fee, no account, no signature on anything that takes a percentage.

• Confirm you qualify: arrival delay of 3+ hours on a flight covered by EU261 or UK261
• Work out your tier from the flight distance — any online great-circle distance calculator will do
• Submit the airline's claim form, citing Regulation (EC) 261/2004 and the Sturgeon ruling
• Attach your boarding pass and evidence, and state the exact amount you're claiming
• Give the airline 4–6 weeks; chase once, in writing, if you hear nothing
• If you're refused or ignored, escalate to the national enforcement body of the country where the delay happened — that's free too

How Long Do You Have to Claim?

EU261 doesn't set its own deadline. Each country applies its national limitation period, based on where you bring the claim. The figures below are indicative — periods commonly cited for air passenger claims — and rules do change, so always check before filing:

The practical advice is simple: claim soon. Evidence is fresher, the airline can't argue you sat on your rights, and the shorter periods — Belgium, Poland — pass faster than you'd think.

• United Kingdom: 6 years (5 in Scotland)
• Ireland: 6 years
• Spain: 5 years
• France: 5 years
• Germany: 3 years
• Austria: 3 years
• Portugal: 3 years
• Sweden: 3 years (commonly cited; verify before filing)
• Denmark: 3 years
• Finland: 3 years
• Netherlands: 2 years
• Italy: about 2 years (26 months per Italian case law)
• Belgium: 1 year
• Poland: 1 year

Claim Companies: When They're Worth It (and When They're Not)

Claim-management services handle everything for you and charge nothing upfront. The catch is the success fee: typically around 25–35% of your compensation, sometimes more if the case goes to court. On a €600 claim, that's up to about €200 gone.

Claiming directly costs nothing, and for a clear-cut delay it's usually a 20-minute job. But a service can genuinely earn its cut in three situations: the airline stonewalls or ignores you, the case needs court action (services often carry the legal costs and the risk of losing), or you simply can't be bothered with the back-and-forth. Those are honest trades — money for hassle. Just make the trade knowingly, instead of handing over a third of your payout by default.