A Turkish Airlines flight out of an EU or UK airport is covered by EU261 or UK261: €250, €400 or €600 by distance. A flight into Europe from Istanbul is not — Article 3(1)(b) covers inbound flights only when the operating airline holds an EU or EEA licence, and Turkish Airlines does not.
The direction rule, in two lines
| Your Turkish Airlines flight | Covered? |
|---|---|
| Departs an EU, EEA or UK airport (Istanbul-bound or onward) | Yes — EU261 from an EU/EEA airport, UK261 from a UK airport |
| Departs Istanbul or any other non-EU airport, arriving in Europe | No — Article 3(1)(b) needs a Community carrier |
Article 3(1)(a) covers “passengers departing from an airport located in the territory of a Member State”, whichever airline flies you. Article 3(1)(b) covers passengers flying into a Member State from a third country only where “the operating air carrier of the flight concerned is a Community carrier” — an airline holding an EU or EEA operating licence under Article 2(c). Turkish Airlines is licensed in Turkey, which is in neither.
This is not a loophole or a refusal to argue with. It is the scope of the Regulation, and no enforcement body will change it. Read does EU261 cover non-EU airlines for the full grid.
Where the bands fall from Istanbul
Distance is great-circle to your final destination, and because Turkey is outside the EU there is no intra-EU cap to worry about — the €400 ceiling in Article 7(1)(b) applies to flights with both ends inside the Union. Using the airport coordinates this site ships:
| Route | Great-circle | Band |
|---|---|---|
| Istanbul – Sofia | 467 km | €250 |
| Istanbul – Athens | 553 km | €250 |
| Istanbul – Frankfurt | 1,837 km | €400 |
| Istanbul – Paris CDG | 2,212 km | €400 |
| Istanbul – London Heathrow | 2,487 km | £350 under UK261 |
| Istanbul – Lisbon | 3,211 km | €400 |
| Istanbul – Gran Canaria | 4,249 km | €600 |
So on most European departures the realistic answer is €400, the €250 band belongs to the Balkans and Greece, and €600 needs an unusually long route. The amounts and the measurement rule are in the amounts table.
The outbound and the return are two different legal worlds on the same booking. London to Istanbul, delayed four hours: UK261, £350. Istanbul to London, delayed four hours, same aircraft type, same airline: no fixed compensation at all. Passengers assume a return ticket is one thing. Under Article 3 it is two flights, judged separately.
What you can still claim on the flight home
Losing EU261 inbound does not leave you with nothing. The Montreal Convention applies to international carriage between states party to it, whichever airline operates the flight, and Turkey is a party.
- Article 19 makes the carrier liable for damage caused by delay, capped at 6,303 SDR per passenger. It pays your proven, receipted loss — not a fixed sum — and the carrier escapes by proving it took all reasonable measures.
- Article 22(2) caps baggage liability at 1,519 SDR per passenger for destruction, loss, damage or delay.
- The written-complaint clocks are short: 7 days for damaged baggage, 21 days for delayed baggage.
That is a different kind of claim, with receipts instead of a table. Start at EU261 vs the Montreal Convention or, for a bag, the baggage rules.
Turkey’s own rules
Turkey has its own air passenger rights regulation, made by its civil aviation authority. We have not verified it against an official English-language source. The Turkish authority’s site did not respond to our checks on 6 September 2026, and the English-language material we could find was published by claim agencies rather than by the regulator. Rather than restate a figure we cannot source, we leave it out: if your flight departed Turkey, ask the Turkish civil aviation authority directly what the domestic regulation gives you.
Where to send a Turkish Airlines claim
We could not open Turkish Airlines’ own claim page from our checks on 6 September 2026 — its site and its feedback portal both timed out repeatedly — so we do not publish a claim URL here. Find the current feedback or claims form from the airline’s own help pages, keep the reference number, and send the same letter by email as well.
If it refuses a covered claim: for an EU departure, the enforcement body of the country you left, from the Commission’s list. For a UK departure, the CAA route — we have not verified whether Turkish Airlines belongs to a UK ADR scheme, so check the CAA’s list of approved schemes and their members before you file.
Can I claim for a Turkish Airlines connection through Istanbul?
If it is one booking, the delay is measured at your final destination, not at Istanbul. A Frankfurt–Istanbul–Bangkok itinerary on one ticket departs an EU airport, so Article 3(1)(a) covers the whole journey and the band is set by the distance to Bangkok. Two separate tickets break that: see separate tickets and a missed connection.
Does a codeshare with an EU airline change the answer?
It can. The claim lies against the airline that operated the flight, not the one whose code is on your ticket. If a Lufthansa- or Air France-numbered flight was actually flown by Turkish Airlines, the operating carrier is the non-EU one; if the reverse, an EU carrier operated it and the inbound test in Article 3(1)(b) is met.
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.