EU261 · enforcement
Claiming against an airline in Austria
Assume you have three years from the flight to claim in Austria. Complain to the apf, which is both the enforcement body and a free conciliation service, before you think about the Bezirksgericht.
Checked against its sources
Time limit
3 years (generally applied)
Statutory basis not confirmed — see below
Court route
apf conciliation, then the Bezirksgericht
The apf procedure is free and commission-free.
The apf, not Austro Control, is the body on the Commission’s list. It covers every flight departing from an Austrian airport, whichever airline operated it.
The order to do it in
- Write to the airline, quoting Article 7 and the flight. Free.
- Give it a month to answer.
- Apply to the apf if the airline refuses or does not answer. It acts as enforcement body and conciliator in one free procedure, in German or English.
- Sue in the Bezirksgericht (district court) if conciliation fails. If you live in a different EU country from the court, the European Small Claims Procedure (Regulation 861/2007) handles claims up to €5,000 with a standard form, usually without a hearing.
- A claims service only once the free routes are exhausted.
Which body: the apf handles flights that departed from Austria, whichever airline operated them, and flights into Austria from outside the EU, which the Regulation covers when an EU airline operates them (Articles 3 and 16). A flight from another EU country goes to that country’s body, even if the airline is based in Austria. All enforcement bodies →
The time limit in detail
- Period
- Three years from the flight is the period generally given for Austria.
- Statutory basis
- Not confirmed. We could not trace the three-year figure to a specific ABGB provision or to a Supreme Court (OGH) ruling on EU261 claims.
- Safe assumption
- Three years at most. Do not let an Austrian claim drift past that, and write to the airline well before.
- Why national law
- Regulation 261 sets no time limit. The Court of Justice held in Moré v KLM (C-139/11, 22 November 2012) that each Member State’s limitation rules apply, and that the two-year Montreal Convention period does not.
- From 23 Oct 2027
- Regulation (EU) 2026/2202 adds a new Article 7(9): passengers must submit a request for compensation to the airline within nine months of the actual departure date on the ticket. It is a deadline for asking the airline, not for going to court, and the text does not say how it interacts with the national period above. Until it applies, the national period is the limit. What the reform changes →
Every country side by side: time limits by country.
Questions
How long do I have to claim flight compensation in Austria?
Three years from the flight is the period generally applied. We could not confirm its statutory basis or a Supreme Court ruling, so treat three years as the outer limit.
Who enforces air passenger rights in Austria?
The apf (Agentur für Passagier- und Fahrgastrechte) for flights departing from Austria, or arriving there from outside the EU. It is free and also runs the conciliation procedure.
Which court hears flight compensation claims in Austria?
The Bezirksgericht (district court). Use the apf conciliation procedure first: it is free and many claims end there.
Does the 2026 EU reform change the deadline?
Not yet. From 23 October 2027, Regulation (EU) 2026/2202 requires passengers to submit a compensation request to the airline within nine months of the departure date. How that interacts with the national limitation period is not settled by the text.