Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 · UK261
Find out what your airline owes you.
Six questions, no sign-up, and every figure traced to the article it comes from. Then the letter to send — because claiming it yourself is free, and you keep all of it.
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If this message stays, JavaScript is switched off. The compensation bands are set out in full in the table below.
Both charge 35%, and only if they win. If court action is needed, AirHelp adds 15% (50% in all) and pays the legal costs win or lose; Compensair adds up to 10% (45%). Both are affiliate links, and the fee is the same whether you arrive through this site or not.
Position at 5 October 2026
What changed in 2026, and what didn’t
Thirteen years of negotiation ended on 15 June 2026. The text was adopted in July and published in the Official Journal on 2 October 2026 as Regulation (EU) 2026/2202. A great deal of what has been written about it is wrong. Here is the position, with the parts that matter to a claim separated from the parts that do not. The full article-by-article comparison →
What’s circulating
The delay threshold rose from three hours to four hours on short-haul and six on long-haul. A Paris–Rome flight three and a half hours late now gets nothing.
What was agreed
False, and it is the most damaging error in circulation. That was the Council’s first-reading position, with €300 and €500 in place of the three bands. Parliament rejected it and it did not survive conciliation. The three-hour threshold stands new Art 6(4). Under the Council’s version, a delay of three to four hours, the most common qualifying delay, would have paid nothing.
What’s circulating
Long-haul compensation was cut from €600 to €500.
What was agreed
Also rejected. The bands remain €250, €400 and €600 new Art 7(1). They are not index-linked either, so their real value keeps eroding; the Commission has to review them, inflation included, by 23 October 2031.
What’s circulating
The new rules are in force now, so old claims are affected.
What was agreed
Published, in force, and still not applicable. The gap between those words is the whole story. The Regulation appeared in the Official Journal on 2 October 2026, enters into force on 22 October 2026 and applies only from 23 October 2027 Art 3. It contains no provision reaching back to earlier flights. Every claim being made today is decided under the rules as they stand.
Genuinely new
Cabin baggage, seating and vulnerable passengers.
What was agreed
The reform does change real things, from 23 October 2027. One personal item (40×30×15 cm, or one that fits under the seat) in the cabin at no extra charge, and fares shown including hand baggage by default. A free adjacent seat for the adult accompanying a child under 14, and for the companion of a passenger with reduced mobility. No refusing the return flight because you skipped the outbound. And a clock on the airline: it must tell you how to claim within 96 hours and pay or answer within 30 days, against a nine-month deadline for you to ask. The extraordinary-circumstances list moves from case law into an Annex to the Regulation.
What’s circulating
Passengers gained everywhere. Nothing was taken away.
What was agreed
Not quite, and this is the part almost nobody reports. Today the duty of care has no ceiling — McDonagh (C-12/11) settled that a stranded passenger’s hotel bill is uncapped however exceptional the event Art 9. From 23 October 2027 the airline may cap accommodation at three nights, but only where the disruption was extraordinary and could not have been avoided new Art 9(6). On a flight taken today the uncapped duty still applies. Keep the receipts.
Where this comes from
- Regulation (EU) 2026/2202, OJ L, 2 October 2026: the new text; Art 3 for entry into force (22 October 2026) and application (23 October 2027).
- European Parliament procedure file 2013/0072(COD): conciliation joint text 00039/2026 (15 June), Parliament third reading (7 July), Council decision (13 July), signature (16 September), publication (2 October 2026).
- Commission Communication COM(2025) 630: the Council’s 4-hour / 6-hour, €300 / €500 position.
- Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, Article 7: the amounts and thresholds that decide every claim until 23 October 2027.
- The 3-hour delay threshold: Sturgeon and others, Joined Cases C-402/07 and C-432/07.
The amounts, in full
Set by distance and nothing else. Not by your fare, not by your cabin, not by whether you booked with points.
| Distance | EU261 | UK261 | Article | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 1,500 km | €250 | £220 | Art 7(1)(a) | Madrid–Paris, London–Dublin |
| 1,500–3,500 km | €400 | £350 | Art 7(1)(b) | Also every intra-EU flight over 1,500 km |
| Over 3,500 km | €600 | £520 | Art 7(1)(c) | Transatlantic, Gulf, Asia |
| Over 3,500 km, arriving 3–4 hours late | €300 | £260 | Art 7(2) | Halved. The most commonly missed rule on this page |
Payable per passenger, including children occupying a seat. A family of four on a long-haul cancellation is owed €2,400, not €600.
Rather hand it over?No-win-no-fee claim check with AirHelp ↗
Before you write to anyone
What actually proves your case
Claims fail on evidence far more often than on law. Almost all of the evidence you need disappears within days — gate screens get cleared, apps overwrite the old times, and staff move on.
Do this now
- Photograph the departure board showing the delay, and the gate screen if there is one.
- Screenshot the airline app before it updates. The original scheduled times vanish once the flight closes.
- Note the time the aircraft door opened at your final destination. That is the legal arrival time, and it is usually later than the time the airline records.
- Ask a member of staff, in writing, what caused it. Email or app chat, not a conversation at a desk.
- Keep every receipt for food, drinks, transport and hotel. Care under Art 9 is owed on top of compensation, and it is not capped.
- Keep the boarding pass and the original booking confirmation.
Don’t do this
- Don’t accept a voucher without asking what the cash entitlement is. Vouchers are routinely offered at a fraction of the amount owed, and accepting one can be treated as settlement.
- Don’t sign anything at the desk describing a payment as full and final.
- Don’t take “it was weather” on trust. Ask them to state it in writing. Historic weather records are public and airlines lose this argument regularly.
- Don’t buy a replacement flight before asking for re-routing. The airline owes you the alternative under Art 8; buying your own can weaken the claim.
- Don’t sign up to a claims service first. Writing to the airline is free and keeps the whole amount. Services are the fallback, not the opening move.
- Don’t assume you’ve run out of time. Limits run from six years in England to one year in Poland and Belgium, and Italy’s is unsettled.
Where to go next
The regulation is short. The way it is applied is not.
New law, applies 2027
The 2026 reform, explained
What Regulation 2026/2202 changes on 23 October 2027, row by row against today’s rules, and what it leaves alone.
Reference
The regulation, annotated
All 19 articles, with the legal text alongside what each one means in practice and the judgments that shaped it.
Free
Letters that work
First claim, chase after 28 days, rejection of a voucher offer, and escalation to the enforcement body. Copy, fill in, send.
The main battleground
Extraordinary circumstances
What the defence covers, what it does not, and the cases where airlines have lost it.
By country
How long you have
One year in Poland, six in England. Where you claim decides whether you still can.
Free escalation
National enforcement bodies
Who to complain to in each country when the airline says no, and what they can actually do.
By what happened
Every disruption type
Delay, cancellation, denied boarding, missed connection, strike, weather, baggage. What you're owed for each.
Airline by airline
How each carrier handles claims
Where to send it, how long they take, and the refusal patterns worth expecting.
Questions
Do I have to use a claims company?
No, and on a straightforward claim you should not start there. Writing to the airline yourself costs nothing and you keep the entire amount. If the airline refuses or goes quiet, the national enforcement body or an approved ADR scheme will look at it, also free. Claims services typically take 35 per cent, and up to 50 per cent if the case goes to court, and they earn that fee properly only when a case is genuinely contested or heading for court.
The airline says weather. Is that the end of it?
Not necessarily. The airline must show both that the event occurred and that it could not have avoided the consequences by taking all reasonable measures. If conditions had cleared well before your slot, if other aircraft were operating normally, or if the real cause was an aircraft already out of position from an earlier delay, the defence often fails. Ask them to state the cause in writing.
Does the delay have to be on the flight I complained about?
What counts is the arrival delay at your final destination on a single booking. A short delay on the first leg that makes you miss a connection, and lands you three or more hours late overall, is a claim — even if the second flight itself ran on time.
Do I still get compensation if they refunded my ticket?
Yes. Compensation under Article 7 is separate from the refund under Article 8 and from care under Article 9. An airline that refunds you has met one duty, not all three.
What if I booked through an agent, or on points?
It makes no difference. The right attaches to the passenger and the flight, not to the fare, the booking channel or the currency used. Award tickets are covered.
If you would rather hand it off
Claiming yourself is free and you keep the entire amount — that is the route this site teaches, and on a straightforward claim it is the right one. But if the airline has gone quiet, the cause is contested, or you simply do not want the admin, a no-win-no-fee claims service will run it for a percentage. A percentage of something beats all of nothing.
Both charge 35%, and only if they win. If court action is needed, AirHelp adds 15% (50% in all) and pays the legal costs win or lose; Compensair adds up to 10% (45%). Both are affiliate links, and the fee is the same whether you arrive through this site or not.