If your flight is delayed your rights (under Regulation (EC) 261/2004) depend on the distance of your flight and the duration of the delay. Depending on these factors, you may be entitled to some or all of the following:
Meals and refreshments in relation to waiting time
Two free telephone calls, emails, telexes or faxes
In addition, for overnight delay, the airline should provide hotel accommodation and transfers.
If your flight is delayed by more than five hours, you can choose not to travel on the delayed flight and to get a refund for that flight and for any later flights on the same ticket. If you choose to abandon your flight and take the refund you will not be entitled to any further assistance, such as hotel and transfer costs.
If the flight that is delayed more than five hours is a connecting flight, and if you have already made part of the journey but no longer wish to continue because of the delay, you are entitled to reimbursement of the total cost of the ticket and a free flight back to your first point of departure.
If your flight is delayed for more than three hours, you may be entitled to compensation in line with the table below - unless the airline can prove that the delay was caused by "extraordinary circumstances" which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken".
This right to compensate for flights delayed more than three hours is not set out specifically in Regulation EC261/2004, but follows a European Court of Justice ruling on the Regulation on 19 November 2009.
However, the Administrative Court of the High Court of Justice in the UK has recently ordered, on the application of a number of airlines, that questions relating to the November 2009 ruling be referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union. In doing so, it placed a “stay” on further court proceedings in the UK whose aim would be to try to make airlines pay compensation in line with the ruling. The stay will remain in place until the CJEU has ruled on the questions referred by the Administrative Court.
In the meantime, airlines cannot be compelled in the UK to pay compensation for delays.
*This includes all EU Member States plus EEA countries and Switzerland.
For a list of EU Member States and EEA countries click here.
Click here for our FAQs on passenger rights under Regulation (EC) 261/2004
In addition to your entitlement under EU law, you may also be entitled under the Montreal Convention to any "damages" resulting from any delay to your journey. Please see our advice on the Montreal Convention.
