A cancellation announced less than 14 days before departure pays €250, €400 or €600 under EU261, or £220, £350 or £520 under UK261, on top of your money back or a seat on another flight. The one escape is a replacement flight that lands inside the time windows in Article 5(1)(c) — or proven extraordinary circumstances.
The notice grid, exactly as Article 5(1)(c) writes it
Compensation is due unless one of these three lines is true.
| When you were told | The airline also has to offer | Compensation |
|---|---|---|
| 14 days or more before the scheduled departure | nothing further | None |
| Between 14 and 7 days before | re-routing departing no more than 2 hours before the original departure and arriving less than 4 hours after the original arrival | None if both limbs are met |
| Less than 7 days before | re-routing departing no more than 1 hour before the original departure and arriving less than 2 hours after the original arrival | None if both limbs are met |
Both halves of the offer have to be satisfied, and you have to have been offered them — an email saying “your flight is cancelled, request a refund here” is not re-routing. If the replacement lands outside the window, or no replacement was offered, the full amount under Article 7 is due. The distance bands are the same as for a delay: see the amounts table.
The airline has to prove when it told you, not you. Article 5(4) puts the burden of proving whether and when the passenger was informed on the operating air carrier. If it claims it emailed you three weeks out, ask for the message with its send date. A booking-system note is not proof of notice to you.
Refund and compensation are two different things
They come from different articles and you can have both.
- Article 8 is your choice between reimbursement of the ticket within seven days and re-routing to your final destination at the earliest opportunity, or at a later date that suits you. Article 7(3) sets how the money is paid: cash, electronic bank transfer, bank order or cheque, and a travel voucher only “with the signed agreement of the passenger”. You never have to take the voucher — see voucher instead of cash.
- Article 7 is the fixed sum for the disruption itself, and it does not shrink because you took the refund or because the ticket was cheap.
Taking the refund does not waive the compensation. Airlines sometimes present the refund as “settlement of your claim”; read what you are clicking before you accept.
The near-identical-schedule exception, in practice
The two re-routing limbs only work when the airline actually moved you and you actually travelled on that flight. Three common failures:
- The offer arrived after you had rebooked yourself. An offer you never received cannot satisfy Article 5(1)(c).
- The replacement arrives 4 hours later on the 7-to-14-day line. Four hours exactly is outside “less than 4 hours”. Check the scheduled times, minute by minute.
- The re-route was to a different airport. That may still count as re-routing, but the airline bears the transfer cost under Article 8(3), and a much later arrival still breaks the window.
What still applies if the cause was extraordinary
Extraordinary circumstances excuse the Article 7 payment, never the rest. You keep the refund-or-re-route choice under Article 8 and the meals, calls and hotel under Article 9, whatever caused the cancellation. Ask for the specific reason in writing and check it against extraordinary circumstances before you accept a refusal.
When you have the notice date and the replacement times, send the cancellation compensation letter.
Is 14 days counted from the cancellation email or the flight?
From the scheduled departure, backwards. Article 5(1)(c)(i) asks whether you were informed “at least two weeks before the scheduled time of departure”. A message 13 days and 20 hours before departure is inside the window and can still pay.
Does a cancelled flight pay a refund and compensation?
Yes, when the notice test is failed. The refund comes from Article 8(1)(a) and the fixed sum from Article 7; they are separate obligations. What you cannot do is take the refund and also claim the cost of a replacement ticket you bought yourself for the same journey.
What if the airline changed the flight instead of cancelling it?
A large schedule change that leaves nothing of the original flight is treated as a cancellation, and moving you to a flight with a different number and a different time is the usual sign. If the airline calls it a “schedule change”, ask in writing whether the original flight operated. Whether you accept the new flight or ask for your money back is your choice under Article 8 — the comparison is in refund or re-route.