Indemnisation vol retardé KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

KLM delays: what is specific

KLM is a Dutch (EU) carrier: EU261 covers every KLM departure and every KLM flight into the EU. Almost every KLM journey connects through Amsterdam Schiphol on a single ticket, so the delay is measured at your final destination and the distance band uses the whole journey — a short delay on a European feeder that costs you an intercontinental connection is a €600 claim (€300 between 3 and 4 hours’ arrival delay).

Schiphol’s capacity restrictions and weather are KLM’s usual defences and can be extraordinary when the airport or air-traffic control imposed them; KLM crew and fleet issues are not. European flights may be operated by KLM Cityhopper under KL numbers, with identical rights. There is no Dutch aviation dispute-resolution scheme, so a refused claim goes to the ILT and the kantonrechter; the Dutch limitation period is only 2 years, so do not wait.

How the 3 hours are measured on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines 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 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines 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.

European flights may be operated by KLM Cityhopper (WA). Check the operating carrier on your boarding pass: the rules follow the airline that flew the aircraft, not the one that sold the ticket.

How much KLM Royal Dutch Airlines 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 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines 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 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines’s typical routes.

Care while you wait

From 2 hours of delay (short flights), 3 hours (medium) or 4 hours (long) KLM Royal Dutch Airlines 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 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines may argue

Only extraordinary circumstances exempt KLM Royal Dutch Airlines 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 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines’s own staff strikes are not extraordinary. The burden of proof is on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines: 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 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

1. Note the actual arrival time (arrivals board, flight-tracker screenshot, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines’s own notification).
2. Ask KLM Royal Dutch Airlines in writing for the reason for the delay.
3. Submit the claim through KLM Royal Dutch Airlines’s official channel (https://www.klm.com/information/legal/passenger-rights), or by post to KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Customer Care, P.O. Box 7700, 1117 ZL Schiphol, The Netherlands, quoting the booking reference, the flight, the date, the arrival delay and the amount per passenger.
4. If KLM Royal Dutch Airlines refuses or does not reply within 8 weeks, escalate to Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT); a court claim remains available within the limitation period of the departure country.