Ryanair owes the standard EU261 amounts — €250, €400 or €600 by distance — when your flight arrives three or more hours late, is cancelled with under 14 days’ notice, or you are denied boarding. Ryanair’s own EU261 page states the same three bands. Which figure applies is in the amounts table.
Which regime applies to your Ryanair flight
| Your flight | Regime |
|---|---|
| Departs an EU airport, or arrives in the EU from outside on Ryanair | EU261 — euro amounts, enforcement body of the departure country |
| Departs a UK airport | UK261 — sterling amounts, UK CAA route and ADR |
A flight from the UK into the EU on a Ryanair Group airline falls under both. Claim once and say which regime you are using.
Where the €600 band does and does not arise
Article 7(1)(b) caps a flight with both ends inside the EU at €400 however far it goes. Ryanair’s own page repeats that: €600 is for “all non-internal EU flights of more than 3,500 km”. So on a typical intra-EU Ryanair route the realistic outcome is the €250 or €400 band, and a refusal that argues about the top band is usually arguing about the wrong thing.
Ryanair Group is more than one airline
The UK CAA’s register of ADR members lists Ryanair, Buzz, Lauda and Malta Air as separate airlines. Ryanair’s own help pages carry the “Ryanair DAC” corporate footer. Under Article 2(b) the claim belongs to the airline that operated your flight, so check the “operated by” line on your booking before you send anything — a claim aimed at the wrong group company comes back rejected on a technicality rather than on the merits. See which airline actually owes you.
Two Court of Justice cases with Ryanair as a party
- McDonagh v Ryanair (C-12/11, 31 January 2013). The Icelandic ash cloud was an extraordinary circumstance, so no compensation — but the Court held the duty to provide care continued, without a limit in time or money. If Ryanair refuses compensation for a genuine external event, your meals and hotel claim survives intact.
- Moens v Ryanair (C-159/18, 26 June 2019). Petrol spilled on the runway by someone else was extraordinary. Note the limit of that: the spill has to come from outside the airline, and Ryanair still has to show what it did to limit the resulting delay.
A one-word reason is not a refusal you have to accept. “Technical”, “operational” or “weather” without a specific cause does not discharge the airline’s burden under Article 5(3). Reply asking for the cause and the reasonable measures taken, then check it against extraordinary circumstances.
If Ryanair refuses
Send one dated follow-up, then escalate. It is free either way.
- UK flights. Ryanair is on the CAA’s list of airlines signed up to AviationADR. You can go to ADR once you have a final response, or after eight weeks with no reply, and you must submit within 12 months of that final response. The adjudicator’s decision binds the airline, and you are still free to reject it and go to court.
- EU flights. Take it to the national enforcement body of the country you departed from — the European Commission keeps the list.
Full detail in if the airline refuses.
Does Ryanair pay compensation for weather delays?
Not if the weather genuinely made the flight unsafe or closed the airspace — that is an extraordinary circumstance. Ask which conditions, on which date, and whether other flights operated. You still keep the right to meals, a hotel and a refund or re-routing.
Can I claim on a €20 Ryanair fare?
Yes. The Article 7 amount is fixed by distance and is not linked to what you paid, so a €250 payment on a cheap fare is the normal result, not an anomaly.
Ryanair sent a voucher instead of money
Article 7(3) says compensation is paid in cash, by electronic bank transfer, bank order or cheque — a voucher only with your signed agreement. You can decline the voucher and ask for the transfer.
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.