Flight compensation in France
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Quick answer
All flights departing French airports — including the overseas departments — are covered by Regulation 261/2004, on any airline. The DGAC is the enforcement body, the Médiation Tourisme et Voyage handles disputes with Air France, HOP, Transavia and most French carriers free of charge, and you have 5 years to bring a court claim.
Who is covered
- Departures from France
- Every flight departing an airport in France is covered, whichever airline operates it.
- Arrivals into France
- Flights arriving from outside Europe are covered only when the operating airline is licensed in the EU/EEA; a third-country airline (Emirates, Qatar Airways, American Airlines) is not.
- Applicable rules
- EU Regulation 261/2004
- Currency
- EUR
- Enforcement authority
- Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile (DGAC)
- Limitation period
- 5 years
- Article 2224 Civil Code (contractual claims).
- Escalation path
- Airline → MTV mediator (Air France group and most French carriers, free) → DGAC complaint → tribunal judiciaire small-claims procedure or European Small Claims Procedure.
Limitation periods differ by country and can be as short as one year. This is the period to bring a court claim; complaint bodies may have their own deadlines.
What can I claim for a flight from France?
Every flight departing from France is covered under EU261, whichever airline operates: €250–€600 per passenger for an arrival delay of 3 hours or more, a cancellation announced under 14 days ahead, or denied boarding. Flights into France from outside Europe are covered when the airline is licensed in Europe.
Does this apply to your flight?
Flight from or to France?
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Already known from this page
- France
What happened to your flight?
Rules and amounts
Regulation 261/2004 applies to every departure from Paris-CDG, Orly, Nice, Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Nantes and the other French airports, and to inbound flights operated by EU airlines. The amounts are €250 (up to 1,500 km), €400 (1,500–3,500 km, and all flights between two EU airports over 3,500 km — which includes Paris to Réunion, Guadeloupe and Martinique) and €600 (other flights over 3,500 km).
Enforcement: DGAC
The Direction Générale de l’Aviation Civile is France’s national enforcement body under Article 16. It accepts complaints about flights departing France (and inbound EU-carrier flights), investigates airlines’ practices and can impose administrative fines. It does not award compensation to individual passengers, but a DGAC file strengthens a later court claim.
Mediation: MTV
The Médiation Tourisme et Voyage is the approved consumer mediator for Air France, HOP, Transavia France, Corsair, Air Austral, Air Caraïbes and many tour operators. It is free. You must first have complained in writing to the airline; you can refer the dispute to MTV after a refusal or two months without a substantive reply, and within one year of your written complaint. MTV’s opinions are not binding but are followed in the great majority of cases.
Courts
For claims the airline still refuses, the tribunal judiciaire handles small claims (below €5,000) through a simplified procedure without a lawyer, and the European Small Claims Procedure is available for cross-border claims. The limitation period for contractual claims in France is 5 years (Article 2224 of the Civil Code).
French specifics
- French ATC strikes are the most frequent “extraordinary circumstances” defence; airlines must prove the strike affected your specific flight.
- Strikes by an airline’s own staff are not extraordinary.
- Flights to and from the overseas departments (Réunion, Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Mayotte) are intra-EU flights, so the €400 cap applies even though they exceed 3,500 km.
Sources
- European Commission — DG MOVEAir passenger rights (including list of National Enforcement Bodies)
- European Parliament and CouncilRegulation (EC) No 261/2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights
- European Union — Your EuropeAir passenger rights
Last legally reviewed: 12 September 2026 · Content updated: 12 September 2026
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Enter the flight; the check applies the rules for departures from France, tells you the amount and names the body to escalate to.