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Flight delayed or cancelled? You could be owed up to €600.

Under EU Regulation 261/2004 (and UK261), a 3-hour delay, a cancellation at less than 14 days’ notice or overbooking can earn you €250–600 per passenger, whatever you paid for the ticket, for flights up to 3 years back.

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See if you are owed money

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What happened?Step 1 of 4

What happened to your flight?
Where did you fly from and to?

With a connection, enter your first departure and your final destination – compensation is based on the total distance.

How late did you arrive at your final destination?

What counts is when the aircraft doors opened at your destination – not the departure delay.

When were you told about the cancellation?
When did you arrive on the replacement flight?
Which airline operated the flight?
When was the flight?

How many passengers were on the booking?

1 passenger

Every passenger gets their own compensation, children too. Infants under 2 without their own seat do not count.

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What a delayed flight is worth

Popular routes · per passenger · if you arrive 3+ hours late or are cancelled at short notice

short haul
€250
medium haul
€400
long haul
€600
FromRouteDistanceRuleCompensation
LHR London → BarcelonaBritish Airways 1,148 km UK261 €250UK261: £220 Claim my moneyStart a claim
LGW London → RomeeasyJet 1,406 km UK261 €250UK261: £220 Claim my moneyStart a claim
DUB Dublin → LondonRyanair 471 km EU261 €250per passenger Claim my moneyStart a claim
CDG Paris → AthensAir France, Aegean 2,109 km EU261 €400per passenger Claim my moneyStart a claim
AMS Amsterdam → TenerifeTransavia, TUI 3,224 km EU261 €400per passenger Claim my moneyStart a claim
MAN Manchester → Palma de MallorcaJet2, Ryanair 1,581 km UK261 €400UK261: £350 Claim my moneyStart a claim
FRA Frankfurt → New YorkLufthansa, Singapore Airlines 6,189 km EU261 €600per passenger Claim my moneyStart a claim
MAD Madrid → DubaiEmirates 5,649 km EU261 €600per passenger Claim my moneyStart a claim
Flight delay compensation Cancelled flights Airport guides Strike calendar

Great-circle distance between the airports, as the Regulation requires. On UK departures UK261 applies and pays in pounds. Nothing is due if the airline proves extraordinary circumstances (e.g. severe weather, an air traffic control strike). *Flights into the EU from outside are covered only with an EU airline.

Where did your flight leave from?

The rights are the same across Europe – the route to your money is not. Each country guide covers which flights are covered, the national enforcement body, dispute schemes, courts and time limits.

All countries · Destination guides · Enforcement bodies

Europe’s most delayed airports in 2025

Air traffic flow delay per arriving flight at airports with 20,000+ arrivals, from EUROCONTROL data – weather, air traffic control and capacity restrictions, the causes airlines most often cite.

European statistics
AirportCountryArrivalsMin per arrivalMain cause
Athens (ATH)Greece139,3155.46ATC capacity (91%)
Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS)Netherlands246,5114.83aerodrome capacity (50%)
Nice (NCE)France76,0834.12ATC capacity (74%)
Crete Heraklion (HER)Greece33,2583.93aerodrome capacity (99%)
Lisbon (LIS)Portugal115,2942.83weather (69%)
Porto (OPO)Portugal56,3192.45weather (73%)
Zurich (ZRH)Switzerland133,8772.44weather (48%)
Naples (NAP)Italy45,7212.34environmental issues (36%)

Source: EUROCONTROL. Airline blamed the weather? Check what was recorded on your travel day.

Flying from the UK: how often were flights 3+ hours late in 2025?

1,910,536 flights at 25 UK airports, from the Civil Aviation Authority’s punctuality data: 0.55% were 3 or more hours late and 1.04% were cancelled.

Full statistics
AirlineUK flightsOn time3 h+ lateCancelled
easyJet390,79872.6%0.51%0.79%
British Airways351,04976.7%0.37%1.23%
Ryanair336,70870.1%0.53%0.27%
Jet2122,89567.4%0.58%0.18%
Aer Lingus70,11174.1%0.65%2.64%
TUI Airways61,60759.2%0.83%0.14%
Wizz Air57,88776.8%0.82%0.34%
Loganair55,37878.6%0.53%3.07%
KLM41,06369.8%0.29%2.56%
Lufthansa26,93374.0%0.12%1.45%

Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority, departures and arrivals at UK airports. See also delays by route and by airport.

When are you owed compensation?

Fixed compensation is due in four situations – if you departed from the EU or UK, or flew into the EU with an EU airline.

The ticket price doesn’t matter: a €20 low-cost ticket still earns €250, for every paying passenger, children included.

Not due if extraordinary circumstances caused it: storms, air traffic control strikes, airport closures. Technical faults and staff shortages are not. What counts as extraordinary?

Care while you wait: from 2 hours, meals, drinks and a hotel if needed – even when no compensation is due. All passenger rights

How much?

The amount depends on the distance flown, not on the ticket price. Per passenger, paid by bank transfer.

  1. €250

    UK261: £220

    Up to 1,500 km

    e.g. London–Paris, Berlin–Rome, Dublin–Amsterdam

  2. €400

    UK261: £350

    1,500–3,500 km

    e.g. London–Athens, Frankfurt–Tenerife, Rome–Tel Aviv

  3. €600

    UK261: £520

    Over 3,500 km, outside the EU

    e.g. London–New York, Frankfurt–Dubai, Paris–Bangkok

Flights within the EU over 3,500 km earn €400. On non-EU journeys over 3,500 km, a 3–4 hour delay can halve the amount. The Regulation in plain English

How you get your money

We explain and check. Our partner AirHelp, the world’s largest air passenger rights company, does the claiming.

  1. Check

    Here, in two minutes: what happened, where you flew, how late you were. We show whether money is due, and how much.

  2. Submit

    On AirHelp’s website, with your flight number and boarding pass. Nothing to pay upfront.

  3. Claim

    AirHelp demands payment from the airline; if it refuses, they take it to the authority or to court at their own cost.

  4. Payout

    If successful, 35% of the compensation is deducted and the rest is paid to your bank account. If not, you pay nothing.

Check compensation or do it yourself: complaint letter generator

Who did you fly with?

The rules are the same for everyone, the practice is not: we wrote a guide for each airline, with its official claim channel.

All 90 airlines

We explain, AirHelp claims

We are the English-language sister site of Járatkésés.hu, which has published plain-language guides to air passenger rights in Hungarian since 2021. Between 2022 and 2025 our team handled readers’ claims directly – but when an airline refused to pay, only slow and costly court action was left. AirHelp litigates in 30 countries with its own legal team, so we now refer claims to them.

If you submit a successful claim through our link, AirHelp pays us a commission out of its own fee. It costs you nothing extra, and AirHelp has no say in what we write.

About us and how we work

Fee on a successful claim
35%

Incl. VAT; +15% if court action is needed. €0 if the claim fails.

AirHelp on Trustpilot
4.5/5

Based on 245,000+ reviews.

Passengers compensated
3 million+

According to AirHelp, since 2013.

Frequently asked questions

The questions we hear most, answered briefly. More on the FAQ page.

How much compensation can I get for a delayed flight?

Under EU Regulation 261/2004 you can get €250, €400 or €600 per passenger (£220, £350 or £520 under UK261 for flights from the UK), depending on the distance flown, if you reached your destination at least 3 hours late. This applies to passengers of any nationality on flights from any EU country, Iceland, Norway or Switzerland, and on EU airlines flying into the EU. The ticket price does not matter: a €20 budget ticket still qualifies for €250. On non-EU journeys of more than 3,500 km, the amount may be reduced by 50% to €300 (£260) for delays of between 3 and 4 hours.

How far back can I claim compensation?

Limitation periods are set by national law and vary by country: for example 6 years in England and Wales, 5 years in Scotland, 3 years in Germany (from the end of the year) and 5 years in Hungary. AirHelp typically accepts claims for flights up to 3 years old, so it is still worth claiming for flights from late 2023.

When am I not entitled to compensation?

When the airline proves the disruption was caused by extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken: severe weather, air traffic control strikes, airport closures, political instability, bird strikes. Technical faults, crew shortages, strikes by the airline's own staff and late previous flights are not extraordinary circumstances. There is also no compensation for arrival delays under 3 hours, or for cancellations announced more than 14 days in advance.

How much does it cost to make a claim?

Checking and submitting your claim is free. AirHelp only deducts a 35% fee (including VAT) if the claim succeeds; if legal action was needed – around 3% of cases – a further 15% applies. If the claim is unsuccessful you pay nothing, and AirHelp also covers the legal costs. From €250 of compensation you would therefore keep about €162.

I flew with a non-EU airline. Can I claim?

Yes, if the flight departed from an EU airport (for example Turkish Airlines from Paris to Istanbul, or Emirates from Frankfurt to Dubai). If you flew into the EU from outside with a non-EU airline (for example Dubai–Frankfurt with Emirates), the EU regulation does not apply, although the Montreal Convention and some countries' own rules (Turkey, Israel, Serbia, Brazil) may still give you a claim.

Is the EU regulation changing in 2026? Does the 3-hour threshold stay?

The amendment was published in the Official Journal of the EU in October 2026 as Regulation (EU) 2026/2202. The 3-hour delay threshold and the €250–€600 amounts stay; the 4- and 6-hour thresholds proposed by the Council (the Member States) in 2025 were dropped. The new rules apply from 23 October 2027 – from then on you will have to claim within 9 months – and until then the current regulation applies. More about the reform

EU261 Flight Delay is an independent information site, not the official website of AirHelp. We receive a commission for successful claims submitted through our links; it does not affect the amount of your compensation. Details