ADR for flight compensation: which schemes exist, who is a member, how they work

What ADR is, and is not

Alternative dispute resolution sits between the airline and the court. A scheme looks at the claim, the airline’s answer and the evidence, and issues a decision or a conciliation proposal. In the binding schemes the airline has agreed in advance to comply; the passenger remains free to go to court if unhappy. It is not an enforcement body (that is the Article 16 authority) and it is not a court — but it applies the same rules, at no cost to you, in weeks rather than months.

The schemes, by country

Membership changes; Horvera’s airline pages and the open airline dataset record the scheme for each carrier as last verified.

Who can use them

The passenger (or a person acting for them), after the airline has had the chance to answer: most schemes will not open a case until the airline has given a final response or a set period has passed. The case must be a dispute the scheme covers — compensation, refunds and expenses under Regulation 261 generally are; baggage and injury are separate (Montreal Convention).

What a referral needs

• The original claim and the airline’s answer(s), dated.
• Booking confirmation, boarding passes and proof of the arrival time or the cancellation notice.
• The amount claimed and the legal basis (Article 7; the distance band).
• For an extraordinary-circumstances refusal: the questions you asked the airline and what it did not answer.

The scheme may ask the airline for its evidence; airlines that refused on a template often cannot produce it, which is why referrals succeed.

Spain: how the AESA procedure works

AESA is both the enforcement body and, since 2 June 2023, an accredited dispute-resolution entity under Ley 7/2017. Claim from the airline first; it must answer within one month. After a refusal or one month of silence, file with AESA online — within one year of that claim to the airline. AESA decides within 90 days of the complete file (extendable), and its decision binds the airline, which has one month to comply; if it does not, you can ask the competent court to enforce the decision. The decision does not bind you: you keep every civil action against the airline. There is no cap on the amount, and the scope is flights departing Spain on any airline plus flights into Spain from outside the EU on an EU airline — a flight from another EU country is for that country’s body.

When ADR applies — and when it does not

ADR is open when all of these hold:

• you claimed from the airline in writing first — a scheme may refuse a dispute you never raised with the airline (ADR Directive 2013/11, Art. 5(4)(a));
• the airline has given its final answer, or the scheme’s waiting period has run (see how long the airline has to answer);
• the airline is a member for this flight — membership is per airline and per country (Ryanair’s AviationADR membership covers flights touching the UK, Spain, Sweden or Denmark; for Germany it is the Schlichtungsstelle) — or the country runs a scheme open to every airline (AESA, apf, the Polish ombudsman);
• you are inside the scheme’s referral window (12 months from the final answer in the UK schemes; one year from your claim for AESA, MTV and apf — never less than a year from the complaint under the Directive, Art. 5(4)(e)).

It does not apply to baggage or injury (Montreal Convention claims), to package-holiday disputes with the tour operator, to a claim already before a court (AESA refuses those), or where no scheme exists for the flight — Ireland, Switzerland and standalone flights in the Netherlands. After a refusal the airline must tell you, on paper or another durable medium, which ADR entity covers it and whether it will take part (Directive, Art. 13(3)).

The typical escalation sequence

1. Written claim to the operating airline, with the flight, the disruption, the amount per passenger and the article relied on. Keep the date.
2. Waiting period — or the airline’s final answer, whichever comes first.
3. One reasoned reply to a refusal, asking for the facts behind it, with a 14-day deadline (good practice, not a condition of ADR).
4. ADR referral with the claim, the answers, the booking, boarding passes and proof of the arrival time or the cancellation notice.
5. Enforcement body — in parallel, or instead where there is no scheme.
6. Small-claims court if the scheme declines, decides against you, or the airline does not comply — before the limitation period ends.

ADR, enforcement body or court

A scheme decides your claim; the enforcement body checks the airline’s compliance and can sanction it but, outside Spain, does not order payment; the court orders payment and enforces it. The ADR vs court guide compares them line by line, including the European Small Claims Procedure for cross-border claims up to €5,000.

Time limits that matter

• Before: the waiting period (8 weeks in the UK, 2 months in Germany and France, 1 month in Spain, 6 weeks in Austria, 30 days in Poland).
• For the referral: the scheme’s window, counted from the final answer, your claim or the flight depending on the scheme.
• For the decision: ADR entities must decide within 90 days of a complete file, extendable for complex cases (Directive, Art. 8(e)); AviationADR aims for 60 days, AESA has 90.
• Behind everything: the court limitation period of the enforcement country. A non-binding procedure cannot make you lose the right to go to court through the clock running out (Directive, Art. 12); a binding one may not pause it, so do not refer in the last weeks — see the time-limit page.

Possible outcomes

• Upheld — the airline pays within the scheme’s deadline (one month for AESA, after which a Spanish court can enforce the decision).
• Partly upheld — for example the long-haul half-amount, or expenses without compensation.
• Rejected — the scheme accepts the airline’s ground, typically a proven extraordinary circumstance. The court remains open to you: a decision never binds the passenger.
• Settled — the airline pays once the case is opened; confirm the amount before withdrawing.

After the decision

If the scheme decides for you, the airline pays within the scheme’s deadline. If it decides against you, or the airline is not a member, the national enforcement body and the small-claims court remain open; nothing in an ADR referral takes them away, but check the limitation period — the ADR process does not always pause it.

Your next step

The rejected-claim check finds the scheme or body for your airline and departure country, tells you whether it is open to you today — or from which date — and lists what the referral needs.