EU261 explained: Regulation (EC) 261/2004, its scope, rights and enforcement

Scope (Article 3)

EU261 applies to passengers:

• departing from an airport in an EU Member State (plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein through the EEA Agreement, and the EU’s outermost regions such as the Canary Islands, Madeira, the Azores, Réunion, Guadeloupe and Martinique) — whatever the airline;
• departing from a third country to an EU/EEA airport, if the operating carrier is an EU/EEA-licensed airline and no compensation was received under the third country’s law.

It does not apply to flights between two non-EU countries, to flights into the EU on non-EU airlines, to free or reduced-fare tickets not available to the public, or to helicopters.

Switzerland is covered by a separate agreement with the same rules (see the Switzerland page). The UK left the EU regime on 1 January 2021 and now applies its own version, UK261; flights from the EU to the UK remain covered by EU261.

The rights

Amounts (Article 7)

• €250 for flights of 1,500 km or less;
• €400 for intra-EU flights over 1,500 km and all other flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km;
• €600 for all other flights.

Distance is the great-circle distance between the departure airport and the final destination (Bossen, C-559/16), so connecting flights are measured as one straight line. The airline may halve the amount when re-routing gets you there within 2, 3 or 4 hours of the original arrival time. For the eligibility conditions with worked examples, see EU261 compensation: how much and whether you qualify.

Extraordinary circumstances (Article 5(3))

The airline is exempt from compensation only if it proves the disruption was caused by extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. The 2016 Commission Interpretative Guidelines and the Court’s judgments give practical guidance: technical faults, crew absence and internal strikes are ordinary business risks; severe weather, ATC restrictions, security threats, bird strikes and external strikes usually qualify. The extraordinary circumstances page sets out the case law cause by cause.

Enforcement

Each Member State designates a National Enforcement Body (Article 16) that handles complaints about flights departing from its territory (and flights arriving from third countries on EU carriers). Many countries also have approved alternative dispute resolution schemes whose decisions airlines have agreed to follow. Claims can always be brought before the courts; limitation periods are national and range from 1 to 6 years (time limit by country).

The 2027 reform

The EU institutions are negotiating a revision of Regulation 261/2004 — see what the proposal would change. Until an amending regulation is published in the Official Journal with a date of application, the current rules apply unchanged to every flight. Horvera’s rules engine is versioned by flight date so historic flights are always assessed under the rules in force when they operated.