Flight Delays? Know Your Rights This Summer!

Press Release

2024-06-12

An areal shot above a beach
For UK passengers, the law applies if your flight is delayed by more than three hours, less than 14 days before departure or you are denied boarding due to overbooking.

As the summer hol­id­ay season ap­proaches, trav­el­lers are eagerly plan­ning their get­aways. However, with the in­crease in travel comes the heightened risk of flight delays and can­cel­la­tions. It's es­sen­tial for UK trav­el­lers to un­der­stand their rights re­garding flight com­pens­a­tion to ensure a smooth and stress-free hol­id­ay ex­per­i­ence.

Catrin Le Rendu, a UK so­li­citor at the lead­ing Nordic legal tech com­pany Aatos, shares tips on when you are en­titled to com­pens­a­tion from air­lines and what you can expect to re­ceive.

Even after Brexit, UK pas­sen­gers are af­forded the same pro­tec­tions given to EU pas­sen­gers under EU Reg­u­la­tion 261/2004, as a result of the UK’s own UK261 reg­u­la­tion. This means that pas­sen­gers flying from a UK or EU air­port, or on a UK or EU air­line, are en­titled to com­pens­a­tion for delays, can­cel­la­tions, or in­vol­un­tary denied boarding.

“For UK pas­sen­gers, the law ap­plies if your flight is delayed by more than three hours, less than 14 days before de­par­ture or you are denied boarding due to over­book­ing,” Le Rendu ex­plains.

The com­pens­a­tion amount varies based on the dis­tance of your flight and the length of the delay:

Flight Dis­tanceCom­pens­a­tion Amount*
Up to 1,500 km£220
Between 1,500 km and 3,500 km£350
Over 3,500 km£520

*Amount based on UK261

If the flight is late or can­celled, pas­sen­gers are gen­er­ally also en­titled to:

  1. Meals and re­fresh­ments in a reas­on­able re­la­tion to the wait­ing time
  2. Ac­com­mod­a­tion if a stay of one or more nights is ne­ces­sary
  3. Transport between the air­port and the ac­com­mod­a­tion
  4. Two free tele­phone calls, emails, or faxes

“Com­pens­a­tion is not ap­plic­able if the delay or can­cel­la­tion is due to ex­traordin­ary cir­cum­stances beyond the air­line's con­trol, such as severe weath­er, polit­ical in­stabil­ity, or strikes. Ad­di­tion­ally, if you arrive at the air­port too late and the gates have already closed, you are not en­titled to com­pens­a­tion,” Le Rendu says.

If an air­line places a pas­sen­ger in a lower class than the one ori­gin­ally booked, it must provide a dis­count of 30%-75% within seven days, de­pend­ing on the flight dis­tance.

"The pas­sen­gers are also en­titled to fin­an­cial com­pens­a­tion if they miss a con­nect­ing flight due to the delay and the flights are part of a single re­ser­va­tion,” Le Rendu says.

Read more about Flight Delay Com­pens­a­tion

Con­tact

Catrin Le Rendu
UK So­li­citor
catrin@aatos.app

Mariia Kukkakorpi
Com­mu­nic­a­tions Man­ager
mariia@aatos.app

Aatos is a lead­ing di­git­al legal ser­vice in the Nor­dics provid­ing com­pre­hens­ive, af­ford­able legal solu­tions across Fin­land, Sweden, Den­mark, as well as Eng­land and Wales. Aatos spe­cial­ises in per­son­al legal doc­u­ments and advice, making legal ser­vices ac­cess­ible and un­der­stand­able for every­one. Aatos’s ser­vices in­clude e.g. draft­ing Last Wills, Pren­ups and Lasting Power of At­tor­neys.

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