The clock nobody tells you about
How long you have to claim
Regulation 261 sets no deadline at all. Each country sets its own, and the range is enormous — one year in Poland, six in England. It is the single most decisive fact about an older claim, and almost no one publishes it plainly.
One deadline is about to be added, and it is shorter than most of these
The 2026 reform, adopted on 13 July, gives passengers nine months from the date of the flight to submit a compensation claim to the airline — the first deadline the Regulation has ever set for itself. It sits alongside the national limits below rather than replacing them, and it is shorter than every period in the table.
It does not apply yet. The text still has to appear in the Official Journal, and the rules start to apply a year after that, so a flight taken today is governed by the national limit in the table and nothing else. The habit worth forming now is the one that survives either way: write to the airline within weeks, not months.
| Country | Time limit | Enforcement body | Applies |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 6 years (England, Wales, NI) · 5 years (Scotland) | Civil Aviation Authority | UK261 |
| Spain | 5 years | AESA — Agencia Estatal de Seguridad Aérea | EU261 |
| Germany | 3 years, running from the end of the calendar year of the flight | Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA) | EU261 |
| France | 5 years | DGAC — Direction générale de l'Aviation civile | EU261 |
| Italy | 2 years (some sources cite 26 months) | ENAC — Ente Nazionale per l'Aviazione Civile | EU261 |
| Netherlands | 2 years | Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport (ILT) | EU261 |
| Ireland | 6 years | Commission for Aviation Regulation | EU261 |
| Poland | 1 year | Urząd Lotnictwa Cywilnego (ULC) | EU261 |
| Belgium | 1 year | SPF Mobilité / FOD Mobiliteit | EU261 |
| Portugal | 3 years | ANAC — Autoridade Nacional da Aviação Civil | EU261 |
| Austria | 3 years | Austro Control / bmk | EU261 |
| Greece | 5 years | Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority | EU261 |
Which limit applies depends on where the claim is brought, which is usually the country of departure or the airline’s home state. Where you have a choice, the longer period is worth having.
Close to your deadline?
If your time limit is months away, claim free first — you keep the whole amount. If it is down to weeks, a no-win-no-fee claims service can still take the case on quickly; they file claims every day, and a percentage of something beats watching the right expire.
Compensair takes 25–35%, AirHelp 35–50% if court action is needed. Both work no-win-no-fee, so a doomed claim costs you nothing to check. Affiliate links; your fee is unchanged either way.