EU flight cancellation compensation
If your booked flight is cancelled, the airline should compensate you if the cancellation was their fault.
Air travel can prove to be frustrating to passengers if a booked flight ends up being cancelled. A cancelled flight varies from a delayed flight in that it never took off. The EU laws protect travellers in such cases as they ensure the passenger does not lose both time and money. A traveller can claim a tidy sum of up to €600 for flight cancellation as compensation, at times even after the airline has arranged a replacement flight.
There are a few aspects that determine if you are eligible for compensation:
- The cancelled flight was supposed to take off from the EU or land in the EU (this applies for airlines registered in the EU)
- The notification was issued less than two weeks before the flight date.
- The arrival time of the replacement flight considerably varied from the original flight
- The reason for the flight cancellation was not due to extraordinary circumstances-i.e. technical failures, airline strikes, etc.
Airlines should offer their customers €250 for flights less than 1500km if the other flight takes more than 2hours and €125 for delays less than 2 hours. For internal flights over 1500km or non-internal EU flights 1500km to 3500km, the airline should compensate €200 for flight delays under 3 hours and €400 for delays over 3 hours. For non-internal EU flights over 3500km, the airline should pay €300 for delays under 4 hours and €600 for delays above 4 hours. The airline can avoid paying for flight cancellation if they issued the notice with more than 14 days’ notice or if they re-routed you.