EC 261/2004 Explained — What the Regulation Actually Says, Article by Article

EC 261/2004 is the European regulation that gives air passengers the right to compensation, assistance, and a refund or re-routing when a flight is cancelled, overbooked, or arrives three hours or more late. Payments typically run from around €250 to €600 per passenger, depending on how far you were flying.

Most articles about the regulation summarise it. This one walks through the parts of EC 261/2004 that decide claims, article by article, so you can see where your own situation sits.

What EC 261/2004 is, in one paragraph

Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 was adopted in February 2004 and came into force a year later. It replaced a weaker set of rules on overbooking and, for the first time, set fixed sums that airlines owe passengers when something goes wrong. The sums do not depend on what you paid for your ticket. A passenger on a €39 fare and a passenger in business class on the same aircraft are usually owed the same amount.

Who EC 261/2004 covers, and who it does not

Two tests decide whether EC 261/2004 applies to your flight, and only one of them has to pass.

The first is departure. Any flight leaving an airport in the EU or EEA is covered, whatever airline operates it. A Delta flight from Paris to Atlanta falls inside the regulation.

The second is arrival, and here the airline matters. A flight landing in the EU or EEA from outside it is only covered when the operating carrier holds an EU licence. Lufthansa from New York to Frankfurt is covered, and so is KLM compensation on the same journey into Amsterdam. Delta on either route is not.

Switzerland applies the same rules through a bilateral agreement. The United Kingdom left the EU regime and now runs its own version, UK261, with the amounts published in pounds.

Article 4: denied boarding and overbooking

If an airline has sold more seats than it has, it must first ask for volunteers to give up their place in exchange for an agreed benefit. Only if too few people come forward may it refuse boarding against a passenger’s will, and that passenger is then owed the fixed sum in Article 7 straight away, on top of a refund or re-routing. This is the clearest right in the whole regulation, and the most commonly given up by passengers who accept a voucher at the gate without asking what else they are entitled to. Our guide to compensation for denied boarding sets out what to establish before you agree to anything.

Article 5: cancellations and the 14-day notice rule

A cancelled flight triggers compensation unless the airline told you at least fourteen days before departure. Tell you between seven and fourteen days out, and it must also offer an alternative flight within a fairly narrow window. Tell you inside seven days, and the window narrows further.

Article 5 also carries the airline’s escape route. No compensation is due if the cancellation was caused by extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. What counts as extraordinary is where most disputes actually happen.

Article 6 and the Sturgeon ruling

Read Article 6 on its own and you will find no compensation for delays at all, only meals, phone calls and a hotel. Compensation for long delays came from the Court of Justice, in a 2009 decision known as the Sturgeon ruling, which held that passengers arriving three hours or more late suffer the same loss as passengers whose flight was cancelled, and should be treated the same way.

That is why the three-hour threshold appears nowhere in the text but governs almost every delay claim. It is measured on arrival, not departure: what matters is when the aircraft doors opened at your destination, and that single time stamp decides what you can claim for a delayed flight.

Article 7: the compensation bands

Article 7 sets the amounts. As a rough guide, flights of up to 1,500 km attract around €250, flights over 1,500 km within Europe and other flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km attract around €400, and longer flights attract up to €600. The airline may halve the figure on longer routes if it re-routed you and you arrived within a set number of hours of the original time.

Distance is measured great-circle, from first departure to final destination, not leg by leg, which is why a two-stop itinerary rarely pays what passengers expect. The EU 261 compensation bands work the arithmetic through on real routes.

Article 8: reimbursement or re-routing

When a flight is cancelled or you are denied boarding, the airline must offer you a choice: your money back within seven days, or a seat to your destination at the earliest opportunity, or a seat at a later date that suits you. The choice is yours, not the airline’s. Being handed a voucher and told that is the only option is not compliance with Article 8.

Article 9: the right to care

This is the article passengers use most and know least. While you wait, the airline must provide meals and refreshments in reasonable relation to the waiting time, two phone calls or emails, and hotel accommodation with transport to it if you have to stay overnight. It applies whether or not you end up owed compensation, and it applies during extraordinary circumstances too. Storms do not switch off the right to a meal.

Article 14: the notice the airline owes you

At the check-in desk, the airline must display a notice telling passengers to ask staff for a written statement of their rights, and it must hand that statement to anyone denied boarding or affected by a cancellation. If nobody offered you one, that is worth recording. It does not win a claim by itself, but it tells you how the airline handles its obligations.

The articles rarely act alone. A single cancelled flight can pull in Article 5, Article 8 and Article 9 at once, and a claim is usually won on the combination rather than on any one of them. If you would rather not work through the regulation twice, you can check your claim for free against a specific flight.

Key takeaways

• EC 261/2004 covers any flight departing the EU or EEA, and flights arriving there on an EU-licensed carrier.
• The amounts are fixed by distance and do not depend on your ticket price.
• The three-hour delay threshold comes from case law, not the text of the regulation.
• Extraordinary circumstances remove compensation, but never the right to meals, calls and a hotel.
• The UK now applies its own version, UK261, in pounds.

Frequently asked questions

What is EU regulation EC 261/2004?

EC 261/2004 is the EU law setting out what airlines owe passengers when a flight is cancelled, overbooked, or delayed on arrival by three hours or more. It covers three separate things: a fixed cash payment, a refund or re-routing, and care while you wait. Amounts and thresholds are current at the time of writing and should be checked against CAA or EU guidance before you claim.

How do I claim EU261 compensation?

Write to the operating airline, not the one you booked with if they differ. Give the flight number, date, booking reference and the delay on arrival, and ask for compensation under Regulation (EC) No 261/2004. If the airline refuses or does not reply, you can escalate to the national enforcement body in the country you departed from, or to the airline’s dispute resolution scheme.

What proof do I need for an EU261 claim?

Your booking confirmation and boarding pass, and something that fixes the actual arrival time. A photograph of the arrivals board, a screenshot from a flight tracking app, or the airline’s own delay notification all work. Keep receipts for meals or a hotel if the airline provided nothing, as expenses are claimed separately from the fixed sum.