On one booking, EU261 measures your delay at the final destination, not leg by leg. Reach it three or more hours late and the fixed €250, €400 or €600 is due even if no single flight was three hours late. That rule comes from the Court of Justice in Folkerts, C-11/11.
What Folkerts decided
In Air France v Folkerts (C-11/11, Grand Chamber, 26 February 2013) the Court held that compensation under Article 7 is due to a passenger on directly connecting flights who reaches the final destination three hours or more after the scheduled arrival there — whether or not the departure delay on any leg crossed the thresholds in Article 6. The inconvenience the regulation compensates materialises on arrival, so that is where you measure it.
Combined with Sturgeon (C-402/07 and C-432/07, 19 November 2009), which created the three-hour trigger in the first place, that is the whole basis of a missed-connection claim.
So: work out the scheduled arrival time at your last airport, work out when you actually got there, and subtract. A 90-minute delay on leg one that costs you a connection and lands you five hours late is a full claim.
The distance band is measured over the whole journey
The band comes from the great-circle distance from your first departure airport to your final destination, not from the leg that went wrong. A short first hop that causes a missed long-haul connection is priced on the long-haul distance. See how flight distance is measured and the amounts table.
What counts as one journey
| Your booking | One journey for EU261? |
|---|---|
| All legs under a single booking reference | Yes — measure the delay at the final destination |
| Legs sold together as one contract by an airline or agent | Usually yes |
| Two separate tickets you bought yourself | Usually no — each ticket is its own journey |
The single booking reference is the protection, and it is the first thing to check. Two tickets bought separately are two journeys: the first airline owes only if that flight itself arrived three hours late at its own destination, and nobody owes you the price of the onward fare you missed. “Self-transfer” guarantees sold by booking sites are the seller’s promise, not an EU261 right.
Who you claim from on a mixed-carrier connection
The operating carrier of the leg that caused the delay is the usual answer. But on a single reservation there is a second route worth knowing: in CS and Others v České aerolinie (C-502/18, 11 July 2019) the Court held that a Community carrier that operated the first leg stays liable for the compensation even when the delay happened on a later leg flown by a non-EU partner outside the EU. If the long-haul partner is unreachable or refuses, put the claim to the EU airline that flew you out.
Does the journey still have to be in scope?
Yes. At least one end has to bring the trip under the regulation — departing an EU or UK airport, or arriving in the EU or UK on an EU or UK carrier. A trip that starts at an EU airport is in scope whichever airline flies the later legs. See does EU261 cover non-EU airlines.
My connection was short and I missed it by minutes. Whose fault is that?
If the airline sold you the connection on one booking, the connection time was its own minimum. A delay that eats it is the airline’s problem, not yours, unless it can prove an extraordinary circumstance and that it took all reasonable measures to get you there another way.
I was re-routed and still arrived late. Do I get less?
Only if the re-routing landed you inside the Article 7(2) window for your band — within 2, 3 or 4 hours of the original arrival — in which case the airline may halve the amount. Outside that window the full sum stands.
What to do next
- Write down the scheduled and actual arrival times at your final destination.
- If the gap is three hours or more on a single booking, send the missed-connection letter or the delay letter to the operating carrier.
- If it is refused on a weak reason, escalate to the regulator.
Rules in force today
This is the law that applies to a flight you take today. A revision of Regulation 261/2004 was adopted in July 2026 — the Parliament approved the conciliation text on 7 July 2026 and the Council gave final approval on 13 July 2026 — and it is not yet in force: it applies 12 months after it enters into force following publication in the Official Journal, and the final text sets the details. See what the 2026 EU261 reform changes.
US itineraries work differently — see US passenger rights.