Few things can ruin a holiday or an important business trip like a flight delay or cancellation. At least a small consolation could be the compensation that airlines are required to pay in certain cases. This article briefly covers when you are entitled to compensation for a flight delay or cancellation.

Conditions for Compensation

The protection of passengers' rights in air transport, including compensation claims, is regulated by European Union legislation. This regulation also specifies which flights are eligible for compensation due to delays or cancellations.

For you to be entitled to compensation, the flight must be within the European Union, or it must have departed from an EU country (regardless of whether the airline is European or not), or it must have arrived in the EU from a non-EU airline.

The condition for receiving compensation for a flight delay is a delay of at least 3 hours. However, the delay must be caused by the airline, not by extraordinary circumstances. You will not be entitled to compensation if the flight was delayed or canceled due to bad weather or damage to the aircraft caused by weather conditions.

Compensation for Flight Delays

If you are entitled to compensation, the airline should pay you 250, 400, or 600 euros, depending on the distance of the flight.

• You will receive 250 euros for a delay of at least 3 hours on flights within 1500 kilometers.
• You will receive 400 euros for flights between 1500 and 3500 kilometers.
• You will receive 600 euros for longer flights.

If the airline offers rerouting to your destination, the compensation may be reduced by up to half if the delay with the rerouting does not exceed:

• 2 hours for flights up to 1500 km;
• 3 hours for flights between 1500 and 3500 km;
• 4 hours for other flights.

Compensation for Flight Cancellations

According to the Regulation, compensation is possible if a flight is canceled and passengers were not informed with sufficient notice.

The right to financial compensation is the same as for delayed flights (based on the flight distance, as outlined above), provided that the airline informed you about the cancellation less than 2 weeks before departure and did not offer an alternative flight. Passengers are entitled to compensation from the operating airline if:

• They were not informed about the cancellation at least 2 weeks before the scheduled departure time, or;
• They were informed within 2 to 7 days before the scheduled departure time and were not offered rerouting that would allow them to depart no later than 2 hours before the originally planned departure time and reach their destination no later than 4 hours after the originally scheduled arrival time, or;
• They were informed about the cancellation less than 7 days before the scheduled departure time and were not offered rerouting that would allow them to depart no later than 1 hour before the originally planned departure time and reach their destination no later than 2 hours after the originally planned arrival time.

How to Claim Compensation?

If you believe you are entitled to compensation, we recommend contacting the airline directly with your request. It is advisable to make the claim as soon as possible. However, not all airlines are equally willing to address your claims. It may happen that they will not accept your request, and in such cases, you will have to pursue compensation through other means.

In such cases, we recommend contacting a legal representative who can assist with communication and, if necessary, help you in any subsequent legal dispute with the airline.

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We used a publicly available AI translation tool to translate this article from Czech to English. Please contact us if any of the above information is unclear to you.

[1] Regulation (EC) No. 261/2004 of the European Parliament and Council of 11 February 2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding, cancellation, or long delay of flights.