Indemnización por vuelo retrasado de Aer Lingus

Aer Lingus delays: what is specific

Aer Lingus sells connections through Dublin, including US pre-clearance itineraries; on a single booking the delay is measured at your final destination, so a late London–Dublin sector that costs you the Dublin–Boston connection is a €600 case.

Dublin Airport restrictions and UK airspace ATC are the most frequent defences; they can be extraordinary but only for your flight and with the reasonable measures shown. Strikes by Aer Lingus’ own pilots or cabin crew are not extraordinary.

How the 3 hours are measured on Aer Lingus flights

The delay that counts is the arrival delay at your final destination, measured when at least one aircraft door opens — not the departure delay, the touchdown time or the block-on time. Compare it with the scheduled arrival on your booking. A Aer Lingus flight that leaves 3 hours 30 late but makes up time to arrive 2 hours 50 late is not compensable; one that leaves on time and arrives 3 hours late is.

How much Aer Lingus owes for a delay

Under EU261 the amount depends only on the great-circle distance of the flight (or of the whole journey on a single booking), never on the ticket price: €250, €400 or €600 per passenger. On flights over 3,500 km Aer Lingus may halve the amount (€300 instead of €600) when the arrival delay is between 3 and 4 hours; from 4 hours the full amount applies. The table above shows the amounts on Aer Lingus’s typical routes.

Care while you wait

From 2 hours of delay (short flights), 3 hours (medium) or 4 hours (long) Aer Lingus must offer meals and refreshments in proportion to the wait, two phone calls or e-mails, and a hotel with transport if you are kept overnight. If it does not, keep receipts for reasonable expenses and claim them separately — they come on top of the fixed compensation. After 5 hours you may also abandon the trip and claim a full refund of the unused ticket.

What Aer Lingus may argue

Only extraordinary circumstances exempt Aer Lingus from paying: severe weather, air-traffic-control restrictions or strikes, security incidents, bird strikes, external strikes. Technical faults, crew shortages, late inbound aircraft from an earlier rotation and Aer Lingus’s own staff strikes are not extraordinary. The burden of proof is on Aer Lingus: ask for the precise cause of your flight’s delay and the measures it took, and treat a bare “operational reasons” as no answer.

How to claim a delay from Aer Lingus

1. Note the actual arrival time (arrivals board, flight-tracker screenshot, Aer Lingus’s own notification).
2. Ask Aer Lingus in writing for the reason for the delay.
3. Submit the claim through Aer Lingus’s official channel (https://www.aerlingus.com/support/), or by post to Aer Lingus Limited, Customer Relations, Dublin Airport, Co. Dublin, Ireland, quoting the booking reference, the flight, the date, the arrival delay and the amount per passenger.
4. If Aer Lingus refuses or does not reply within 8 weeks, escalate to Irish Aviation Authority (NEB); a court claim remains available within the limitation period of the departure country.