EU261 · enforcement
Claiming against an airline in Italy
Nobody can tell you the Italian time limit with certainty. The Court of Cassation has ruled out the two-year Montreal bar but not said what applies, so assume six months.
Checked against its sources
Time limit
Unsettled — assume 6 months
Cass. ord. 4427/2024; candidates: art. 418 cod. nav., art. 2951 c.c.
Court route
ART ConciliaWeb, then the Giudice di pace
ENAC enforces; it does not obtain compensation for you.
The “26 months” figure some sites give for Italy does not appear in any statute or judgment we could find, and we have dropped it.
The order to do it in
- Write to the airline, quoting Article 7 and the flight. Free.
- Give it a month to answer.
- Ask for conciliation through ConciliaWeb, the dispute service of the Transport Regulation Authority (ART), if the airline refuses. You can also report the airline to ENAC, but ENAC says its complaints serve enforcement only and do not obtain compensation.
- Sue in the Giudice di pace 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: ENAC handles flights that departed from Italy, whichever airline operated them, and flights into Italy 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 Italy. All enforcement bodies →
The time limit in detail
- Period
- Unsettled.
- Court position
- Court of Cassation, ord. no 4427 of 20 February 2024: the two-year Montreal Convention bar does not apply to EU261 compensation. It did not say which period does. A further order (no 6087, 6 March 2024) sent a similar case back to decide the point.
- Periods argued
- Six months from arrival, one year if the flight starts or ends outside Europe (art. 418 cod. nav.); one year, or 18 months outside Europe (art. 2951 c.c.); ten years (art. 2946 c.c.).
- Safe assumption
- Six months from the flight, the shortest period anyone argues for. Act inside it.
- 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 Italy?
It is unsettled. The Court of Cassation (ord. 4427/2024) ruled out the two-year Montreal bar but did not say which period applies; arguments range from six months to ten years. Assume six months from the flight.
Who enforces air passenger rights in Italy?
ENAC, for flights departing from Italy or arriving there from outside the EU. It enforces the Regulation but does not obtain compensation; for that, use the ART ConciliaWeb service or the courts.
Which court hears flight compensation claims in Italy?
The Giudice di pace. Before that, the Transport Regulation Authority's ConciliaWeb service offers free conciliation.
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.