TAP Air Portugal 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 Portugal, so EU261 covers every flight it operates out of the EU and into the EU. Claims go through its own complaints form, and a refusal goes to ANAC.
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 TAP flight
| Your flight | Regime |
|---|---|
| Departs an EU airport, or arrives in the EU from outside on TAP | EU261 — euro amounts, enforcement body of the country you left |
| Departs a UK airport | UK261 — sterling amounts, CAA route and AviationADR |
TAP’s own case decides the two arguments it is most likely to make
LE v Transportes Aéreos Portugueses (C-74/19, 11 June 2020) is a TAP case, and it cuts both ways.
- Disruptive passenger. Behaviour that forces a diversion can be an extraordinary circumstance — but only where the carrier did not contribute to it and could not have anticipated or controlled it.
- The knock-on delay. An airline may rely on an extraordinary circumstance that hit an earlier flight of the same aircraft, provided there is a direct causal link to your delay. It does not stop there: it must still show it deployed all reasonable measures, including considering a re-routing on another carrier or through another airport.
So “an earlier problem with the aircraft” is a defence with two halves, and most refusals only assert the first. Ask which flight, which event, and what re-routing was looked at.
Where the claim goes
TAP publishes a requests and complaints page, and we confirmed it opens on 6 September 2026. Cite Article 7, list every flight number on the ticket, and give the actual arrival time at your final destination — that is the time the three-hour test runs on, not the departure delay.
If a refusal follows:
- EU departures. Portugal’s enforcement body is ANAC, the Autoridade Nacional da Aviação Civil; its passenger-rights page leads to the digital complaint form. For a departure from another EU country, use that country’s body from the Commission’s list.
- UK departures. TAP 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 Lisbon connection is one journey
On a single booking the delay that counts is your arrival at the final destination, and the band is measured over the whole journey — so a short first leg that makes you miss the connection can still produce a top-band claim. The €600 band needs more than 3,500 km with one end outside the EU; a flight with both ends inside the EU is capped at €400 by Article 7(1)(b). See connecting flights and the 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 slow reply is not a refusal, and it is not a reason to stop. Set a date in your first letter, chase once when it passes, and then file with ANAC — or with AviationADR on a UK departure — attaching the claim and whatever answer you did or did not get. Delay in handling is not a defence to the claim itself.
TAP blamed a disruptive passenger. Do I lose the compensation?
Not automatically. Under C-74/19 that behaviour counts only if TAP neither contributed to it nor could have anticipated and controlled it, and it must still show the reasonable measures it took afterwards. Ask for the diversion report and the re-routing options considered.
TAP says an earlier delay to the same aircraft caused mine. Is that a defence?
Only with a direct causal link and reasonable measures on top. C-74/19 allows the argument and then limits it: the airline has to show what it did, including looking at other carriers and airports, before it can keep the money.
My connection in Lisbon made me late. Can I claim?
Yes, if you were on one booking and reached the final destination three or more hours late for a reason within the airline’s control. The amount follows the total distance to that destination, not the leg that failed.
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.