The headline rule
If an airline's own staff are on strike — pilots, cabin crew, ground staff working for the carrier — the airline is liable for the disruption. The European Court of Justice settled this definitively in the Krüsemann v TUIfly case in 2018: a strike by the airline's own employees is part of the normal exercise of running the business, not an extraordinary circumstance.
You're entitled to the full EU261 compensation amounts when the strike causes:
- A cancellation with less than 14 days' notice, or
- An arrival delay of 3 hours or more
When strikes do exempt the airline
If the strike is by third parties outside the airline's control, the airline may legitimately invoke extraordinary circumstances:
- Air-traffic-control strikes
- Airport ground-handler strikes (where they're a separate company)
- Fuel-supplier or security-staff strikes
Even then, the airline still has to prove the strike caused the disruption and that they couldn't have rerouted you on another carrier.
How much you're owed
| Distance | Compensation |
|---|---|
| Up to 1,500 km | €250 |
| Intra-EU > 1,500 km, or 1,500–3,500 km | €400 |
| Over 3,500 km extra-EU | €600 |