When an airline cancels a flight, the decisive question is not why but when you were told. Regulation EC 261/2004 makes the notice period the primary test: if the airline informs you at least 14 days before the scheduled departure, no fixed compensation is owed. If the notice is shorter, you may be entitled to between €125 and €600 per passenger. Here is the complete scale, the reductions that can apply, and the situations that cancel the right to payment.
The 14-day rule: where entitlement begins
Article 5 of the Regulation states that the operating air carrier must compensate passengers whose flight is cancelled, unless they were informed of the cancellation at least 14 days before the scheduled time of departure. The countdown runs against the originally scheduled departure, not the booking date.
In practice: a flight scheduled for 20 March and cancelled by an email received on 6 March gives no right to compensation (14 clear days). The same email received on 7 March does. Crucially, the burden of proof lies with the airline: it must demonstrate when and how it notified you (Court of Justice of the EU, Krijgsman, C-302/16). A verbal claim from a call-centre agent is not sufficient evidence.
The standard scale: €250, €400 or €600
The amount depends solely on the great-circle distance between the departure airport and the final destination on your ticket:
- €250 — flights of 1,500 km or less (e.g. London–Amsterdam, Paris–Barcelona).
- €400 — intra-EU flights over 1,500 km, and all other flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km (e.g. Madrid–Athens, Paris–Dakar).
- €600 — non-intra-EU flights over 3,500 km (e.g. Frankfurt–New York, Nice–Dubai).
Compensation is a flat sum per passenger, including children travelling on a paid ticket. It is unrelated to the ticket price, the cabin class or the purpose of the trip.
When the amount is halved: the re-routing reductions
The Regulation allows the airline to reduce compensation by 50% when it offers re-routing close enough to the original schedule. Two windows apply:
- Notice given between 14 and 7 days before departure: 50% reduction if the replacement flight departs no more than 2 hours earlier than scheduled and arrives less than 4 hours later than the original arrival time.
- Notice given less than 7 days before departure: 50% reduction if the replacement flight departs no more than 1 hour earlier and arrives less than 2 hours later.
The reduced scale is therefore €125, €200 or €300. If the re-routing misses the arrival threshold by even a few minutes, the full amount is restored. And if you decline the re-routing and request a refund instead, the airline cannot automatically apply the reduction.
Three worked examples
- Dublin–Lisbon (1,750 km), cancelled 9 days ahead, re-routing arriving 5 hours late: €400 in full (the 4-hour threshold is exceeded).
- Rome–Cairo (2,130 km), cancelled 3 days ahead, re-routing arriving 1h30 late: €200 (€400 halved).
- Amsterdam–Montreal (5,600 km), cancelled the day before, re-routed the next morning: €600, plus hotel and meals.
Extraordinary circumstances: the only genuine defence
An airline can avoid paying compensation if the cancellation was caused by extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. Typically accepted: severe weather, airspace closure, air traffic control strikes, political instability, security threats, bird strikes.
EU case law excludes, however: routine technical faults arising from normal aircraft maintenance (Wallentin-Hermann), strikes by the airline's own staff (Krüsemann), crew rostering failures and overbooking. Even where extraordinary circumstances are proven, your rights to a refund, re-routing and care remain fully intact.
Rights that come on top of compensation
- A choice between a full refund of the ticket within 7 days (including unused segments) or re-routing to your final destination under comparable conditions.
- Duty of care while you wait: meals and refreshments, two communications, hotel accommodation and transfers if an overnight stay is required.
- Reimbursement of reasonable expenses you paid yourself when the airline failed to provide assistance — keep every receipt.
Which flights are covered — and how far back you can claim
EC 261/2004 applies to all flights departing from an EU airport, regardless of the airline's nationality, and to flights arriving in the EU operated by an EU carrier. Iceland, Norway and Switzerland are included. Since Brexit, the United Kingdom applies a mirror scheme (UK261) with amounts set in sterling, broadly equivalent to the EU scale.
In most cases you can claim up to 3 years retrospectively. Many travellers discover one or two eligible cancellations when reviewing past business or family trips. Keep boarding passes, cancellation emails and screenshots of rescheduled timings — they are the backbone of a solid file.
Check your claim in two minutes
Notification date, distance, and the timing of the replacement flight: those three facts determine whether you are owed €125, €200, €250, €300, €400 or €600. We handle claims through amicable negotiation with the airline, on a 35% success-only commission — nothing to pay if the claim fails.
Check your eligibility free of charge with our compensation calculator.