Every year, millions of air passengers in Europe lose a flight to a delay, a cancellation, or a forced reroute. Most never realise they are entitled to a fixed cash payment from the airline that has nothing to do with the ticket refund. EU Regulation 261/2004 — universally referred to as EU261 — is the law that grants this right. This guide explains exactly when it applies, how much you can claim, and the most common reasons a claim is rejected.

What EU261 actually covers

EU261 applies to a flight when at least one of these is true:

The flight departs from an airport inside the EU, regardless of the airline. Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and the EU outermost regions (Azores, Canary Islands, Madeira, French Antilles, Réunion) count.
The flight arrives in the EU AND is operated by an EU-licensed carrier (Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, Iberia, ITA Airways, Ryanair, easyJet, Aer Lingus, Wizz Air, etc).

A flight from London Heathrow to New York JFK on British Airways does not fall under EU261 — UK261 covers it instead. A flight from Istanbul to Madrid on Turkish Airlines does fall under EU261 because it lands in the EU (regardless of the carrier? — no, the carrier must be EU-licensed for arrivals to count). Turkish Airlines is not EU-licensed, so that specific case falls under Turkey's TR-SHY regulation.

The three triggers

1. Long delay at arrival

Your flight is covered when it arrives at the final destination 3 hours or more after the scheduled time, even if it departed on time and lost the buffer in the air. The 3-hour threshold is at arrival, not departure — a 4-hour departure delay that lands only 2 hours late does not trigger compensation under this rule (though right-to-care still applies).

2. Cancellation

A cancelled flight is covered unless the airline notified you at least 14 days before departure, OR notified you 7–13 days before and offered an alternative that departs no more than 2 hours early and arrives no more than 4 hours later, OR notified you less than 7 days before and offered an alternative within 1 hour earlier / 2 hours later windows.

3. Denied boarding (overbooking)

If you held a valid reservation, checked in on time, and were not allowed to board because the flight was overbooked, you are entitled to compensation regardless of whether the airline put you on a later flight.

How much you can claim

Compensation is a fixed amount per passenger, independent of the ticket price you paid. The amount depends only on the great-circle distance between departure and final destination:

€250 — flights up to 1,500 km (e.g. Madrid-Paris, Rome-Berlin, Barcelona-London).
€400 — intra-EU flights above 1,500 km (e.g. Madrid-Helsinki, Lisbon-Bucharest) and ALL other flights between 1,500 km and 3,500 km (e.g. Paris-Cairo, Frankfurt-Dubai on EU carrier).
€600 — flights above 3,500 km that are NOT intra-EU (e.g. Madrid-New York, Paris-Tokyo, Frankfurt-Bangkok).

A family of four travelling Madrid → New York on a delayed Iberia flight has a combined claim of €2,400 — separate from any refund or rebooking.

The four exemptions: "extraordinary circumstances"

EU261 lets the airline refuse compensation when the cause was outside its control. The CJEU has clarified the boundaries repeatedly. As of 2026, courts consistently rule the following as extraordinary:

Severe weather (heavy snow, hurricane-grade winds, volcanic ash).
Air traffic control strikes by parties outside the airline.
Political instability or security incidents at the airport.
Hidden manufacturing defects discovered during maintenance.
Bird strikes and other wildlife incidents.

And as NOT extraordinary (compensation must be paid):

Technical faults that proper maintenance should have caught — this is the most common rejected excuse, and courts side with passengers in the majority of these cases.
Crew scheduling errors, including pilot unavailability or duty-hour limits hit due to airline planning.
Strikes by the airline's own employees (e.g. Lufthansa's own pilots) — these are considered part of normal operational risk.
Knock-on delays from earlier flights on the same aircraft, unless the original cause was itself extraordinary.

Right to care during the delay

Independent of the cash compensation, EU261 grants right to care when a delay exceeds:

2 hours for flights up to 1,500 km
3 hours for flights between 1,500 km and 3,500 km
4 hours for flights above 3,500 km

The airline must provide free meals and refreshments proportional to the wait, two free communications (phone or email), and — if the wait runs overnight — hotel accommodation plus transfers to and from the airport. This applies even when the delay is caused by an extraordinary circumstance.

EU261 vs UK261: a quick note

After Brexit, the UK retained the EU261 framework as UK261. The amounts and triggers are essentially identical. The key difference is the trigger: UK261 applies to flights departing UK airports, or operated by UK carriers (British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, easyJet UK, Jet2, TUI Airways UK) flying into the UK. A London-Madrid flight on Iberia is EU261; the same route on British Airways is UK261. Both pay.

How long do you have to claim?

EU261 doesn't set a limitation period; each EU member state's civil law applies. Common periods:

UK — 6 years from the flight date
Germany — 3 years
France — 5 years
Spain — 5 years
Italy — 26 months (under the Codice della Navigazione)
Netherlands — 2 years

Most passengers wait too long to claim. If your flight from 2024 was delayed and you never received compensation, in most EU jurisdictions you can still file today.

How to file a claim

Document everything immediately — boarding pass, delay confirmation from the airline, photos of the airport display, and the reason given by the crew or gate staff.
Submit a written claim directly to the airline first. Use the airline's customer-relations email, not the generic contact form. Include flight number, date, names of all passengers, and the compensation amount per the distance band.
If refused or ignored after 60 days, escalate to the national enforcement body of the departure country (ENAC in Italy, AESA in Spain, BMVI in Germany, CAA in the UK). Filing is free.
Court action as a last resort. Many EU countries have small-claims procedures with simplified paperwork up to €5,000.

Third-party claim agencies (AirHelp, Flightright, etc.) handle the process for a 25–35% commission. They're useful when you don't want to deal with the paperwork yourself, but you give up a significant portion of the payout.

Use Flyney's free compensation checker

Flyney's compensation checker takes a flight number and date, looks up the actual operating airline, departure and arrival airports, and computes whether EU261 (or UK261 / TR-SHY / CA-APPR / ANAC400) applies and how much you can claim. It's free, it doesn't take your bank details, and it does the rule-engine work in seconds.

Key takeaways

EU261 covers any flight departing the EU, or arriving in the EU on an EU carrier, when delayed 3+ hours at arrival, cancelled with under 14 days notice, or you're denied boarding.
Amounts are fixed by distance: €250, €400 or €600 per passenger.
The airline can refuse only for genuinely extraordinary circumstances — technical faults and crew issues do not count.
Right to care (meals, hotel, communications) applies regardless of whether cash compensation is owed.
Most EU jurisdictions let you claim for flights from several years ago. Don't assume your old delayed flight is gone.