Compensation for three-hour delays: Council and Parliament update rules on air passenger rights

Brussels – A flight delayed by three hours entitles passengers to compensation; clear instructions for passengers on how to claim a refund from airlines; no additional charge for a seat for children under 14 sitting next to an accompanying adult; transparent ticket prices that include hand luggage. These are the main points of the agreement reached between negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on rules governing air passenger rights. The agreement aims to protect passengers from travel disruptions, such as denied boarding and delayed or cancelled flights. The rules had not been updated since 2004, and today’s (15 June) revision received the unanimous support of the European Parliament delegation to the EU’s so-called Conciliation Committee. 

“The European Parliament has always been the staunchest advocate of air passengers’ rights. This agreement will strengthen the rights of air passengers across Europe,” said Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament. For the Maltese politician, the agreement “will bring greater transparency and predictability for both consumers and airlines, without creating unnecessary red tape for our sector.” 

The agreement must now be formally adopted by both the European Parliament and the Council, following legal and linguistic review. But for the Cypriot Presidency of the Council of the EU, this is a historic agreement. 

“I am proud that, after 13 years of negotiations, we have reached a historic agreement to strengthen the rights of EU air passengers. This modernised regulatory framework will ensure certainty, fairness, and greater protection for millions of European air passengers,” said Alexis Vafeades, Cyprus’s Minister for Transport, Communications and Public Works. “The agreement strikes the right balance for our airlines, helping to preserve connectivity, which is vital for the EU’s internal market and its citizens,” he noted.

The terms of the agreement

Firstly, air travellers retain the right to a refund or re-routing and to claim compensation if a flight is delayed by more than three hours, cancelled with less than 14 days’ notice, or they are denied boarding. 

Compensation for delayed or cancelled flights will depend on the flight distance: €250 for journeys of up to 1,500 km, €400 for journeys between 1,500 km and 3,500 km, and €600 for all other longer journeys. Airlines will be able to reduce compensation by 50 per cent for longer journeys if passengers are offered an alternative route to their final destination following a disruption, or if the delay on arrival does not exceed four hours. However, airlines will be able to avoid paying compensation if the delay or cancellation was caused by events beyond their control. 

The new rules will include a non-exhaustive list of such extraordinary circumstances, including, for example, natural disasters, wars, adverse weather conditions, unruly passengers, or strikes by airport staff, air traffic control staff or ground handling staff. 

In all cases, airlines will be required to look after stranded passengers, providing drinks every two hours of waiting, a meal after three hours, and, if necessary, overnight accommodation for up to three nights in the event of prolonged delays, according to the agreement.

Passengers who choose to re-route at the earliest opportunity must be offered an alternative route within three hours. This may include re-routing to an alternative airport, a different route, the services of another airline or other means of transport. The re-routing must be provided at the airline’s expense and under comparable conditions of carriage. Passengers, for example, should not be forced to take multiple connecting flights if they have booked a direct flight. Travellers may also be upgraded to a higher class of service at no extra cost. 

“If an airline does not offer an alternative flight within three hours, passengers may arrange their own alternative flight and claim a refund of up to 400 per cent of the original ticket price,” states the EU Council.

Secondly, reimbursement. Here, the agreement stipulates that airlines must provide passengers who experience disruption during their journey (delays or cancellations) with clear instructions on how to submit a claim for compensation within four days (96 hours) of the end of the journey. Travellers will not be required to have a user account or use a specific app to receive this information and will have nine months to submit a claim for compensation, while airlines will have 30 days to pay it or to invoke exceptional circumstances, explain the reasons for the non-payment and direct passengers to the complaints handling procedures, the agreement states. 

Under the agreement, passengers with disabilities and reduced mobility will be entitled to compensation, rebooking, and assistance from airlines should they miss a flight due to the airport’s failure to help them reach the gate on time. They will be entitled to priority assistance and re-routing, will be able to travel with their mobility aids and assistance dogs without paying for additional insurance, and will receive a free replacement for their mobility aids in the event of loss or damage. 

It is also ensured that families with children are not separated when seats are allocated, with airlines required to ensure that anyone accompanying a child under 14 can sit in an adjacent seat without paying a surcharge. The same right will apply to passengers with disabilities or reduced mobility, as well as to pregnant women. 

The agreement broadens the scope of price transparency and the comparability of airfares, requiring airlines, intermediaries, and search engines to always display the airfare, including hand luggage, from the very start of the booking process. Furthermore, negotiators have agreed that airlines may offer cheaper tickets to passengers who voluntarily choose to travel without hand luggage. 

Air passengers will no longer be charged extra for correcting spelling mistakes in their name or for obtaining a printed version of their boarding pass if they have already checked in. Passengers are guaranteed the right to obtain boarding passes in digital format at check-in, without any further requests or obligations to have a user account or a specific app. It is also established that passengers may not be denied boarding for using a personal paper copy of a digitally issued boarding pass. Furthermore, the agreement introduces a ban on denying boarding to a passenger who has not turned up for the outbound flight (no-show).

Scope of application

The rules apply to passengers flying within the EU, on flights operated by EU or non-EU airlines; arriving in the EU from a non-EU country with an EU airline; or departing from the EU to a non-EU country with an EU or non-EU airline. 

Under the agreement, the Commission will assess within three years whether the scope of the regulation can be reviewed and, if necessary, extended to cover all third-country operators. To better inform passengers about which airlines are covered by EU passenger rights rules, a voluntary EU air passenger rights label will be introduced and displayed during the booking process.