Know your rights

What EU261 covers

EU Regulation 261/2004 is the law that sets a fixed compensation amount when an airline disrupts your travel. It applies to any passenger flying from an EU airport (regardless of airline), and to passengers flying into the EU on an EU-registered carrier.

There are five situations where you can claim a fixed sum from the airline:

• Cancellation — flight cancelled less than 14 days before departure.
• Long delay — arrival 3 or more hours late.
• Missed connection — first flight late causes you to miss the next, final arrival 3+ hours late.
• Denied boarding — you had a confirmed booking and were not allowed on the flight against your will.
• Overbooking — same as denied boarding when the airline sold more seats than the aircraft holds.

How much you're owed

These amounts are fixed by law and are per passenger — a family of four owed €600 each is owed €2,400 in total.

How long you have to claim

The time limit depends on where the airline is registered and where the flight took place. In Ireland and most EU countries you have six years to bring a claim. In some jurisdictions it can be as short as one year. If your flight was disrupted recently, you are almost certainly still in time.

When you can't claim

Airlines don't owe compensation when the disruption was caused by extraordinary circumstances — events outside the airline's control that couldn't be avoided even with all reasonable measures. The most common examples are:

• Severe weather (storms, fog, volcanic ash)
• Air-traffic-control strikes or restrictions
• Security alerts
• Medical emergencies on board

Crucially, airline staff strikes are not extraordinary and are claimable — the European Court of Justice settled this in the Krüsemann v TUIfly ruling. Technical faults are also almost never extraordinary.

If you're not sure whether your flight qualifies, run it through our checker — we'll tell you in 30 seconds.