EU261 bands are set by great-circle distance to your final destination: €250 up to 1,500 km, €400 from 1,500 to 3,500 km, €600 above that. UK261 pays £220, £350 and £520. An intra-EU flight is capped at €400 however far it goes. The table below has 44 common routes.
Two details decide your band
- Great-circle distance. The shortest path over the surface of the globe between the two airports — not the track the aircraft flew, not a diversion, not the miles credited to your loyalty account. The UK CAA says the same: measure by the great-circle route.
- To your final destination. On a connecting itinerary under one booking, measure from the first departure airport to the last arrival airport, not leg by leg. See the final-destination rule.
The intra-EU €400 cap
Article 7(1)(b) covers “all intra-Community flights of more than 1,500 kilometres”. That wording is what caps a flight with both ends inside the EU at €400 no matter how long it is. The €600 band in Article 7(1)(c) is for everything else — in practice, flights over 3,500 km with one end outside the EU.
This bites hardest on France’s outermost regions and the Canaries. Paris to Réunion is over 9,000 km and still €400, because both ends are EU territory. Las Palmas to Stockholm is over 4,000 km and still €400. Since Brexit, a flight from a UK airport is not intra-EU, so London to Tel Aviv at about 3,590 km is a top-band claim.
44 routes, computed
| Route | Great-circle km | Band |
|---|---|---|
| London Heathrow – Dublin (LHR–DUB) | 450 | €250 / £220 |
| Amsterdam – London Heathrow (AMS–LHR) | 370 | €250 / £220 |
| Madrid – Lisbon (MAD–LIS) | 510 | €250 |
| Berlin – Vienna (BER–VIE) | 520 | €250 |
| Copenhagen – Amsterdam (CPH–AMS) | 630 | €250 |
| Frankfurt – London Heathrow (FRA–LHR) | 650 | €250 / £220 |
| Warsaw – Frankfurt (WAW–FRA) | 900 | €250 |
| Paris CDG – Rome Fiumicino (CDG–FCO) | 1,100 | €250 |
| London Gatwick – Barcelona (LGW–BCN) | 1,110 | €250 / £220 |
| London Stansted – Palma (STN–PMI) | 1,380 | €250 / £220 |
| Manchester – Alicante (MAN–ALC) | 1,680 | €400 / £350 |
| London Heathrow – Málaga (LHR–AGP) | 1,680 | €400 / £350 |
| London Gatwick – Faro (LGW–FAO) | 1,690 | €400 / £350 |
| Madrid – Tenerife South (MAD–TFS) | 1,820 | €400 — intra-EU |
| Frankfurt – Istanbul (FRA–IST) | 1,840 | €400 |
| Paris CDG – Casablanca (CDG–CMN) | 1,930 | €400 |
| London Heathrow – Athens (LHR–ATH) | 2,430 | €400 / £350 |
| London Gatwick – Tenerife South (LGW–TFS) | 2,910 | €400 / £350 |
| Dublin – Las Palmas (DUB–LPA) | 2,930 | €400 — intra-EU |
| Manchester – Las Palmas (MAN–LPA) | 3,020 | €400 / £350 |
| Berlin – Hurghada (BER–HRG) | 3,270 | €400 |
| Paris CDG – Tel Aviv (CDG–TLV) | 3,280 | €400 |
| Lisbon – Helsinki (LIS–HEL) | 3,360 | €400 — intra-EU |
| London Heathrow – Tel Aviv (LHR–TLV) | 3,590 | €600 / £520 |
| Las Palmas – Stockholm Arlanda (LPA–ARN) | 4,340 | €400 — intra-EU cap |
| Tenerife South – Helsinki (TFS–HEL) | 4,740 | €400 — intra-EU cap |
| Frankfurt – Dubai (FRA–DXB) | 4,840 | €600 |
| Lisbon – Newark (LIS–EWR) | 5,430 | €600 |
| London Heathrow – Dubai (LHR–DXB) | 5,500 | €600 / £520 |
| London Heathrow – New York JFK (LHR–JFK) | 5,540 | €600 / £520 |
| Paris CDG – New York JFK (CDG–JFK) | 5,830 | €600 |
| Paris Orly – Pointe-à-Pitre (ORY–PTP) | 6,750 | €400 — intra-EU cap |
| Paris Orly – Fort-de-France (ORY–FDF) | 6,850 | €400 — intra-EU cap |
| Rome Fiumicino – New York JFK (FCO–JFK) | 6,870 | €600 |
| Paris CDG – Cayenne (CDG–CAY) | 7,110 | €400 — intra-EU cap |
| Lisbon – Rio de Janeiro (LIS–GIG) | 7,720 | €600 |
| Frankfurt – Bangkok (FRA–BKK) | 9,000 | €600 |
| Madrid – Mexico City (MAD–MEX) | 9,070 | €600 |
| Paris CDG – Réunion (CDG–RUN) | 9,370 | €400 — intra-EU cap |
| Paris CDG – São Paulo (CDG–GRU) | 9,400 | €600 |
| Munich – Los Angeles (MUC–LAX) | 9,620 | €600 |
| London Heathrow – Hong Kong (LHR–HKG) | 9,630 | €600 / £520 |
| Madrid – Buenos Aires (MAD–EZE) | 10,090 | €600 |
| London Heathrow – Singapore (LHR–SIN) | 10,880 | €600 / £520 |
Computed from OurAirports coordinates (public domain), rounded to the nearest 10 km; the airline may use slightly different coordinates — anything within ±25 km of 1,500 or 3,500 km should be checked. Sterling figures are shown only where one end is a UK airport. Rows marked “intra-EU cap” exceed 3,500 km but stay at €400 because both ends are in the EU or an EU outermost region.
Do not round in the airline’s favour on a borderline route. If your pair sits within about 25 km of 1,500 or 3,500 km, put the airport codes and your computed figure in the letter so the airline has to give its own number and method rather than just saying no.
How do I work out my own distance?
Take your first departure airport code and your final arrival airport code, then use any great-circle calculator or the site’s compensation calculator, which does the same haversine calculation from the same public airport coordinates. Quote the figure and the airport pair in your claim.
Does a stopover add distance?
No. On a single booking you measure first departure to final destination in a straight line. A routing through a hub that adds hundreds of flown kilometres does not move you up a band, and it does not move you down one either.
Which distance applies if the airline re-routed me?
The distance of the journey you booked, to the final destination on your ticket. Re-routing changes whether the airline can halve the payment under Article 7(2) — see the amounts table — but it does not change your band.
With the band confirmed, send the delay, cancellation or denied-boarding letter to the operating carrier. If the airline claims a defence, check it against extraordinary circumstances.