Flight delay: when you're entitled to compensation

The 3-hour threshold and compensation amounts of €250 to €600

Once the delay at arrival exceeds 3 hours from the scheduled time, compensation becomes due: €250 for flights up to 1,500 km, €400 for intra-EU flights over 1,500 km or non-EU flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km, €600 for flights over 3,500 km. For longer flights, the amount can be halved if the airline still manages to get you to arrive with a delay of less than 4 hours. The hourly thresholds also change the amount of assistance owed: details are in the guide on what changes at each hourly threshold.

Free assistance even under 3 hours

Even when the delay does not reach 3 hours, from 2 hours of waiting (3 for medium-haul routes, 4 for those over 3,500 km), you still have the right to free assistance: meals, drinks and, if the delay extends into the night, hotel accommodation with transfer included.

The exceptions that exclude compensation

Compensation is not owed if the delay results from extraordinary circumstances truly beyond the airline's control, such as extreme weather conditions or an air traffic control strike. An aircraft technical fault, by contrast, is almost always considered the airline's responsibility and entitles you to compensation.

A reform that doesn't change these rules before 2027

In the text definitively approved by the European Parliament on 7 July 2026, the EU Council's proposal to raise the threshold to 4-6 hours of delay was rejected: therefore the 3 hours and compensation amounts of €250 to €600 described above remain, at least until the new rules enter into force, expected in the second half of 2027.

File your complaint first directly with the airline, keeping your boarding pass and documentation of the delay; if it doesn't respond or unjustifiably refuses, contact ENAC or the competent authority of the country where the fact occurred.