How long does an airline have to answer a compensation claim?

There is no deadline in the Regulation

Nothing in Regulation 261/2004 obliges the airline to answer within a set time. The European Commission’s complaint guidance says only to contact the airline first and then the enforcement body; each escalation body sets its own admissibility rule. So the question is not how long the airline has — it is how long you must wait before someone outside the airline takes the case.

The waiting periods that decide it

The table below is generated from Horvera’s dispute-body registry — each body’s rule as stated on its own site. In short:

• United Kingdom — AviationADR, CEDR and the CAA’s PACT team: eight weeks without a final answer, or a “deadlock” letter, whichever comes first; then refer within 12 months.
• Germany — the Schlichtungsstelle Reise & Verkehr: two months after your complaint (a statutory rule of the German Air Traffic Act).
• France — Médiation Tourisme et Voyage: a refusal or two months of silence; refer within one year of your complaint.
• Spain — AESA: a refusal or one month of silence; file within one year of your claim.
• Austria — apf: six weeks, or an unsatisfactory answer; file within one year of your complaint.
• Italy — ENAC: six weeks without an answer, or an unsatisfactory one; within two years of the flight. ENAC warns that some airlines refuse complaints made more than six months after the disruption, so claim early.
• Switzerland — FOCA: six weeks without an answer, or an unsatisfactory one; FOCA normally does not open a procedure for a flight more than a year old.
• Poland — the Passenger Rights Ombudsman: 30 days after your complaint, and within one year of the flight.

Where the registry has no stated rule (Ireland’s IAA, for example), the enforcement body accepts a complaint once the airline has had a reasonable chance to answer, and the court needs no answer from the airline at all.

What to do while you wait

1. Keep proof the claim arrived — an acknowledgement, a case reference, or the sent e-mail with its date. The waiting period runs from it.
2. After about four weeks, send one dated reminder quoting the reference and asking for a final answer within 14 days.
3. When the period has run, refer the case. Do not wait for a second reminder: silence is treated like a refusal by every body above.

The clock that does not stop

The court limitation period of the departure country keeps running while the airline stays silent — from one year (Poland, as its courts apply it) to six years (England and Wales, Ireland). A referral to a scheme does not always pause it; the ADR Directive only protects you when the procedure is non-binding (Art. 12). The time-limit page has the period for each country.

If the airline asks for documents

A request for your booking reference, boarding pass or bank details is not a refusal, and most bodies will not count the waiting period as expired while you have not answered it. Send the documents once, with the airline’s reference, and note the date: the period restarts from a complete claim in practice. The ignored-claim guide has the reminder wording.