Art. 7
Compensation
A fixed sum for the disruption itself — €250, €400 or €600. A €39 fare and a €900 fare in the same row are owed the same, and a family of four is owed it four times.
Guide · 6 min read
What EU261 pays, and when it pays nothing
Three fixed amounts, one distance rule, and a three-hour clock that runs at your final destination rather than at the gate you left. Here are the bands — and the four rules that take them away.
The verdict names the article it came from. No account, no card.
3 hlate at the final destination
€600top band, per passenger
31countries the rule reaches
EU261 · Art. 7(1) · per passenger
From three hours late, EU261 pays €250, €400 or €600 per passenger.
EU261 is Regulation (EC) 261/2004, the European rule that pays air passengers a fixed amount when a flight is disrupted: €250 up to 1,500 km, €400 in the middle band and €600 over 3,500 km, per passenger, once arrival at the final destination is three hours late. Denied boarding counts from the first minute.
| Great-circle distance | Each passenger gets |
|---|---|
| Up to 1,500 km | €250 |
| 1,500–3,500 km | €400 |
| Over 3,500 km | €600 |
One exception hides in the middle row: any flight over 1,500 km with both airports in the EU or EEA stays at €400 however far it goes. The full four-row grid is below.
Compensation, a refund and care are three different things
Airlines answer a compensation claim with a voucher for the fare and call it settled. Passengers accept, because the three entitlements sound like one thing. They aren't.
Your money back
A refund
The ticket price returned. Separate entitlement, never a substitute. From five hours late you can decide not to travel and take the fare back; if you flew, you keep the flight and the compensation both.
Art. 9
Care
Meals in proportion to the wait, two phone calls or emails, and from eight hours late or on a cancellation, a hotel and the transfers to it. Owed on departures from an EU, EEA or UK airport whether or not compensation is.
The part worth remembering
A snowstorm removes the compensation. It doesn't remove the sandwich, the phone call or the hotel bed. Keep the receipts — what the airline owes you while you're stranded has the wording that gets those paid.
What EU261 covers, and where it reaches
Four kinds of disruption trigger the money, and the clock on the first runs at arrival. That's the detail airlines are quietest about: a plane pushing back four hours late that makes up two in the air owes nothing.
- A delay of three hours or more
- Measured at your final destination, not at departure and not at a connecting airport. The threshold comes from the Court of Justice in C-402/07 (Sturgeon), not from the text of the regulation.
- A cancellation announced inside 14 days
- Fourteen days of notice or more ends the claim — Art. 5(1)(c)(i). Thirteen days does not.
- Denied boarding on an oversold flight
- Compensable from the first minute under Art. 4(3). Being bumped is the one case with no waiting.
- A missed connection on one booking
- What counts is when you reached the destination on your ticket. Two legs bought separately are two journeys, and the protection breaks between them.
Which countries count
All 27 EU member states, plus Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein through the EEA Agreement, and Switzerland through the EU–Swiss air transport agreement. A SWISS departure from Zurich is inside EU261. So is one from Oslo or Reykjavík. Great Britain moved to the retained version after Brexit — the sterling amounts are in the UK261 guide.
The three distance bands, in full
Distance runs great-circle from the first departure airport to the final destination, so a one-stop itinerary is measured end to end rather than leg by leg. Here is the full grid, band label included.
| Distance | Both airports in the EU/EEA? | Band label | Per passenger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 1,500 km | Either way | up to 1,500 km | €250 |
| Over 1,500 km | Yes | over 1,500 km, within the EU | €400 |
| 1,500–3,500 km | No | 1,500–3,500 km | €400 |
| Over 3,500 km | No | over 3,500 km | €600 |
Munich–Rome lands in the first row. Frankfurt–Athens is intra-EU and over 1,500 km, so it sits in the second at €400 rather than €600. Frankfurt–Newark leaves the EU and runs past 3,500 km, which is the €600 band.
When the airline may pay half — Art. 7(2)
Re-routing can halve the amount. If the carrier put you on another flight and you still landed within two hours of the original schedule on a short hop, three on an intra-EU or mid-range route, or four on a long-haul, it may pay 50%. That covers cancellations, denied boarding and missed connections. It does not cover a plain delay — worth knowing before you accept a halved offer on one. Four passengers in the €600 band is €2,400 from a single letter, which is also where a percentage fee starts to hurt; the $19 flat fee and the commission arithmetic sit side by side.
The four things that kill a claim
Say these plainly or the page is worse than useless. Each is common, each is real law, and the free check flags them before you spend anything.
Threshold
Under three hours late
Two hours fifty at the final destination pays nothing. Not a reduced amount — nothing. The three-hour line comes from C-402/07 (Sturgeon) and is measured on arrival, so the departure delay on the airport board is the wrong number to argue from.
Notice
Cancelled 14 or more days ahead
A cancellation you were told about at least fourteen days out isn't compensable under Art. 5(1)(c)(i). Re-routing and refund rights survive; the fixed sum doesn't. Check the date on the email — the airline counts from when it told you.
Art. 5(3)
An extraordinary circumstance
Weather, an air traffic control or airport strike, a security incident and a medical emergency all remove the duty to pay. A technical fault does not, and neither does a strike by the airline's own crew. Which excuses hold is set out in the guide to extraordinary circumstances.
Art. 3(1)(b)
An inbound flight on a non-EU airline
The rule most people get wrong in their own favour. Leaving an EU or EEA airport, you're covered whoever operates the flight. Flying into the EU from outside, you're covered only if the operating carrier holds an EU licence. Dubai to Paris on Emirates sits outside EU261. The same aircraft flying back is inside it.
The deadline nobody mentions
A fifth killer, quieter than the rest: the limitation period. It runs from the flight date and is set by the country whose courts would hear the claim. A good Dutch claim goes stale in two years. The same facts in Britain have six.
| Years to file | Where |
|---|---|
| 6 | United Kingdom, Ireland |
| 5 | France, Spain |
| 3 | Germany, Austria, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Romania |
| 2 | Netherlands, Italy, Czechia, Greece, Hungary, Switzerland |
| 1 | Belgium, Poland |
Anything not listed here defaults to two years. If your flight touched Belgium or Poland, treat the anniversary as a hard stop.
How to claim it yourself
No lawyer, no agent. You need the right article, the right address and a date in the calendar.
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Work out the band
Great-circle distance from your first departure to your final destination, then check whether both airports sit in the EU or EEA. Read the amount off the table and multiply by the passengers on the booking.
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Write to the airline, citing the article
Name the flight, the arrival delay, the band and Art. 7(1). Ask for a bank transfer. A letter that cites nothing reads as a complaint and gets answered as one.
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Give it the weeks it takes
British Airways and easyJet typically answer in about four weeks, Lufthansa and KLM in six, Air France and Iberia in eight, TAP in ten. Follow up in writing rather than starting again.
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Answer the excuse, don't argue with it
"Operational reasons" is not a defence under Art. 5(3) — the carrier has to name a circumstance it could not have avoided. A technical fault has been rebuttable since C-549/07 (Wallentin-Hermann).
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Escalate to the national enforcement body
It's free, and it's where the pressure comes from. Regulators want the airline to have had four to eight weeks first, depending on the country. The full claim sequence with the dates on it covers who to write to and when.
Questions people ask about EU261
How much is EU261 compensation?
€250 for a great-circle distance up to 1,500 km, €400 between 1,500 and 3,500 km, and €600 above 3,500 km, per passenger. Any flight over 1,500 km with both airports inside the EU or EEA stays at €400. The ticket price is irrelevant to the calculation.
Does a 2-hour delay pay anything?
No. Compensation starts at three hours late at the final destination, per C-402/07 (Sturgeon). Below that line there's no reduced amount and no partial payment. Meals and phone calls under Art. 9 can still be owed while you wait.
My flight was cancelled — am I owed the same money?
Yes, if the airline told you less than 14 days out and the re-route still got you in more than three hours late. Fourteen days of notice ends the claim under Art. 5(1)(c)(i). A refund of the fare is separate either way.
Can the airline refuse to pay because of weather?
Yes. Weather is an extraordinary circumstance under Art. 5(3), along with ATC strikes, security incidents and medical emergencies. Those rejections are often accurate. A technical fault is different and stays compensable under C-549/07.
Does EU261 cover a flight into Europe on Emirates or Qatar?
No. Art. 3(1)(b) covers an inbound flight to the EU or EEA only when the operating carrier holds an EU licence, and neither does. The same route flown outbound from an EU airport is covered whoever operates it. That asymmetry catches out a lot of long-haul passengers.
Can I get compensation and a refund?
They're separate entitlements, so it depends what you did. If you flew, you keep the flight and claim the fixed compensation on top. If you were five hours or more late and chose not to travel, you can take the fare back and still argue the compensation.
How far back can I claim a delayed flight?
It depends on the country whose courts would hear it. Britain and Ireland allow six years, France and Spain five, Germany three, the Netherlands and Italy two. Belgium and Poland are one. Anything else defaults to two years from the flight date.
The airline offered me a voucher. Do I have to take it?
No. Art. 7 compensation is money, and you can ask for a bank transfer. British Airways often opens with vouchers and Wizz Air pushes its own credit; decline in writing and restate the amount and the article. Accepting a voucher can be read as settling.
Put your flight through the rules
Route, date, how late you landed, what the airline said. The check names the band, the amount and the article — and says no when the rules say no.
FlightOwe is an information service, not a law firm and not your legal representative. We tell you what the rules say and give you the letters — you file your own claim and keep everything you recover.