Consumer rights · 1 min
For flights covered by EU or UK rules, compensation for long delays and cancellations is a fixed amount set by law, not a goodwill gesture. Answer four questions and read what applies; the exceptions that airlines actually use are listed underneath.
EU rules cover flights departing the EU, and flights into the EU on an EU carrier. UK rules mirror them for UK departures and arrivals on UK/EU carriers.
Great-circle distance between the two airports. Short hop inside one country: first band. Europe to another continent: usually the third.
What counts is arrival at the final destination, measured at the moment a door opens — not departure.
Arriving within 2–4 hours of the original time (band-dependent) on the offered rerouting halves the amount.
Everything is calculated in your browser as you type. Nothing you enter is sent or stored, and no account is needed.
Compensation is due.
€400
the fixed amount for this distance band and delay
| Distance band | — |
| Fixed compensation for this band | — |
| Reduction for close rerouting | — |
| Care the airline owes anyway | — |
| Amount to claim | — |
| Distance | Delay that qualifies | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| — | — | — |
| — | — | — |
| — | — | — |
The airline owes nothing for “extraordinary circumstances” it could not avoid: severe weather, air-traffic-control strikes, medical diversions, security events. Crew shortages and most technical faults do not count as extraordinary — courts settled that years ago, and airlines still try it.
Coverage: any flight departing an EU/UK airport, plus flights into the EU/UK on an EU/UK carrier. A US airline flying New York to Paris is covered on the Paris departure, not the New York one.
Claims run back years in most member states (2–6 depending on the country). Write to the airline first with the flight number, the delay, and the fixed amount; if they stall, the national enforcement body or a small claim is the next step, and this claim needs no lawyer.
The amounts below are fixed by Regulation (EC) 261/2004 and the identical UK261 (in £). Nothing is fetched; the page only maps your answers onto the regulation's table.
≤ 1,500 km → €250 (delay ≥ 3 h)
1,500–3,500 km → €400 (delay ≥ 3 h)
> 3,500 km → €600 (delay ≥ 4 h; €300 at 3–4 h)
cancelled/denied → same bands, no delay threshold
rerouted close to plan → amount halved
Care (meals, communication, and a hotel if the wait runs overnight) is owed from 2–4 hours of delay regardless of compensation, and is not deducted from it.
This is not legal advice. The regulation's text and your country's enforcement body have the final word; the page states the general rules so you know whether writing the claim is worth ten minutes. It almost always is.