Air France owes €250, €400 or €600 by distance for a three-hour arrival delay, a cancellation with under 14 days’ notice, or denied boarding. It is licensed in France, so EU261 covers every flight it operates out of the EU and into the EU. Claims start on its own passengers’ rights page; refusals go to the DGAC.
Which figure applies is set by distance to your final destination, not by your fare — the bands are in the amounts table.
Which regime applies to your Air France flight
| Your flight | Regime |
|---|---|
| Departs an EU airport, or arrives in the EU from outside on Air France | EU261 — euro amounts, enforcement body of the country you left |
| Departs a UK airport | UK261 — sterling amounts, CAA route and AviationADR |
Air France was a defendant in the case that created the three-hour right
The Court of Justice decided two references together on 19 November 2009. One was Sturgeon v Condor; the other, C-432/07, Böck and Lepuschitz v Air France SA, was the passengers’ side of the same question. The Court held that a delay is not a cancellation merely because it is long, and that passengers who reach their destination three or more hours late may claim the Article 7 sum unless the airline proves extraordinary circumstances.
Every fixed-sum delay claim in Europe runs through that judgment, and Air France is one of the two airlines named in it.
The claim route, and the French escalation trap
Air France publishes a passengers’ rights page covering assistance and compensation, and we confirmed it opens on 6 September 2026. Cite Article 7, give every flight number on the ticket and the actual arrival time at your final destination.
The trap is on the other side. France’s enforcement body is the DGAC’s Mission du droit des passagers, and the online report form is listed by the European Commission in French only. Budget for that: keep your dates, flight numbers and amounts in a short list you can paste in, and file the claim with Air France in writing first, because the DGAC acts on a claim the airline has already answered or ignored.
Which band you are in, and when it can be halved
The €600 band needs more than 3,500 km with one end outside the EU — the long-haul sectors out of Paris. A flight with both ends inside the EU is capped at €400 by Article 7(1)(b) however far it goes. On a single booking the band is measured over the whole journey to your final destination.
Article 7(2) lets the airline halve the amount only where it re-routes you and you land within 2, 3 or 4 hours of your original arrival, by band; the Court in Sturgeon (paragraph 63) applies the same reduction to a flight of more than 3,500 km that arrives three to under four hours late, giving €300. A halved payment with no re-routing behind it is not the law.
Where an Air France claim goes after a refusal
- EU departures. The DGAC form above, or the body of the country you actually left — the Commission publishes the list.
- UK departures. Air France is on the CAA’s list of airlines signed up to AviationADR. An ADR decision binds the airline, and you apply within 12 months of its final response.
“A strike” is not an answer. Whose strike it was decides whether anything is owed, and a refusal that does not name the workforce has not discharged the burden in Article 5(3). Ask which staff stopped, on which dates, and what re-routing was offered — then read airline strikes and compensation.
Air France blamed a strike. Do I still get compensation?
It depends whose. A strike by people outside the airline is treated differently from one by its own workforce, and the airline has to prove both the event and the reasonable measures it took. Make it name the strike in writing before you accept the refusal; the analysis is in airline strikes and compensation.
How do I escalate an Air France claim?
For an EU departure, to the DGAC’s passenger-rights form, which is published in French. For a departure from another EU country, to that country’s enforcement body. For a UK departure, to AviationADR within 12 months of the final response.
Is compensation separate from getting my money back?
Yes. The Article 7 sum sits on top of the Article 8(1)(a) right to a refund or re-routing on a cancellation, or on a delay of five hours or more, paid within seven days in cash or by bank transfer — a voucher only if you agree in writing. See refund or re-route.
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.