A flight that reaches your final destination three or more hours late is worth €250, €400 or €600 under EU261 — £220, £350 or £520 under UK261 — set by distance, not by what you paid. The airline avoids paying only if it proves extraordinary circumstances. The letter below claims it in one page.
[Your full name]
[Your address]
[Email]
[Phone]
[Today's date]
[Airline name] — Customer Relations / Claims
[Airline claims address or online claim form]
Re: Compensation claim under Regulation (EC) No 261/2004
Flight [Flight number]
Route [Departure airport] to [Final destination airport]
Date of flight [Flight date]
Booking reference [Booking reference]
Dear Sir or Madam,
I was a confirmed passenger on flight [Flight number], from
[Departure airport] to [Final destination airport], on [Flight date],
booking reference [Booking reference]. I checked in on time.
The flight reached my final destination [Hours and minutes late] late. It
was scheduled to arrive at [Scheduled arrival time] and it arrived at
[Actual arrival time].
Under Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, an arrival delay of three
hours or more at the final destination entitles me to fixed compensation.
The great-circle distance from [Departure airport] to
[Final destination airport] is approximately [Distance in km] km. That
falls in the [Distance band] band, so the sum due is [Currency] [Amount].
I am not aware of any extraordinary circumstances that would exempt you
from this obligation, and the burden of proving any such circumstances
rests with the airline.
Please pay [Currency] [Amount] within 14 days to: [Payment details]. If
you consider that compensation is not due, please state your specific
reason in writing.
Yours faithfully,
[Signature]
[Your full name]
How to use it
- Fill the gaps from your boarding pass and booking confirmation. The arrival time is the one that matters, not departure.
- Take the amount and band from the EU261 and UK261 amounts table. Distance is measured great-circle.
- For a UK flight, cite the retained Regulation as it applies in UK law and claim in pounds.
- Attach the booking confirmation, the boarding passes, and any screenshot showing the actual arrival time.
- Send it through the airline’s own claim form or claims email, and keep proof of sending.
If you are writing this from the airport itself, what to do at the airport right now covers the first moves before compensation.
Three hours is measured at your final destination, not at departure. A flight that leaves five hours late but makes up time and lands 2 hours 55 minutes late owes nothing. A flight that pushes back on time and lands three hours late owes the full amount. On a single booking with a connection, only the delay at the end of the journey counts.
Where does the three-hour rule come from?
Article 7 names cancellation and denied boarding, not delay. The right to the same fixed sum after a three-hour arrival delay comes from the Court of Justice in Sturgeon (C-402/07 and C-432/07, 2009), upheld in Nelson (C-581/10 and C-629/10, 2012). Airlines no longer dispute it. If one tells you Article 7 does not cover delay, those are the two cases to name in your reply. For the plain-language version of why three hours is the line, see the 3-hour delay explainer.
Claiming against a specific airline
The letter above works against any carrier, but each airline page adds what is specific to it: the claims address or form, its home regulator, and the trap that catches passengers most often. For the carriers most passengers fly, start with Ryanair, easyJet, Wizz Air, British Airways, Jet2, Lufthansa and KLM. Air France, Vueling, Iberia, TAP Air Portugal, Aer Lingus, Eurowings and Swiss each have their own page too.
Does a cheap ticket mean a smaller payment?
No. Article 7 sets one sum per distance band for every passenger on the flight, whatever the fare was. A €29 ticket on a 2,000 km route carries the same €400 as a flexible fare on the same aircraft. The only figure that changes the amount is the great-circle distance to your final destination. The same goes for who paid: if your employer booked the trip, who keeps the money on a business trip covers how to handle that.
What if the airline blames weather or a technical fault?
Weather that genuinely grounds the aircraft can excuse compensation; most technical faults cannot, because they are part of normal airline operations. Ask for the specific cause in writing, then check it against extraordinary circumstances. Note that the right to meals and a hotel survives even when compensation does not.
How long do I have to send it?
There is no EU-wide deadline; the limitation period is national law. In England and Wales it is six years from the date the claim arose (Limitation Act 1980, section 9); in Scotland it is five. Elsewhere, ask the national enforcement body rather than guessing. Send it while you still have the boarding passes.
If the airline refuses or goes quiet, escalate to the regulator or an ADR scheme — it is free, and it is the same route a claim agency would use.