Wizz Air owes €250, €400 or €600 by distance — £220, £350 or £520 from a UK airport — for a three-hour arrival delay, a cancellation with under 14 days’ notice, or denied boarding. It is licensed in Hungary, so EU261 covers every flight it operates out of the EU and into the EU. Claims go through Wizz Air’s own EC261 form.
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 Wizz Air flight
| Your flight | Regime |
|---|---|
| Departs an EU airport, or arrives in the EU from outside on Wizz Air | EU261 — euro amounts, enforcement body of the country you left |
| Departs a UK airport | UK261 — sterling amounts, UK CAA route and ADR |
A UK departure that lands in the EU on an EU carrier falls under both. You claim once and name the regime you are using.
The claim goes through one form, and Wizz Air states a reply time
Wizz Air publishes an EC261 Regulation page in its help centre, and that page is the claim route. It is also the only carrier page in our file that commits to a reply window: read on 6 September 2026, it said “We will respond to your claim within 30 days”.
That sentence is worth quoting back. A missed 30-day window is not itself a breach of the Regulation, but it is the date you point at when you tell the regulator the airline has stopped engaging, and it removes the argument about how long is reasonable to wait.
Why the €600 band rarely arises on this network
Article 7(1)(b) caps a flight with both ends inside the EU at €400 however far it goes. The €600 band needs a flight of more than 3,500 km with one end outside the EU. On a short- and medium-haul European network that leaves €250 and €400 as the realistic outcomes, and it means a refusal that argues about the top band is usually arguing about the wrong number.
Check the operating carrier before you send anything
Article 2(b) puts the obligation on the airline that operated the flight, not the one whose code is on the ticket. Our carrier file records the W6 code against Wizz Air Hungary Ltd., licensed in Hungary. If your booking names a different operating carrier, that airline is the one the claim goes to, and the enforcement route may follow its licensing state instead. The “operated by” line decides it; see which airline actually owes you.
Where a Wizz Air claim goes after a refusal
- UK flights. Wizz Air 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 Wizz Air’s final response. You can still reject the decision and go to court.
- EU flights. Use the national enforcement body of the country you departed from. For Hungarian departures that is not the aviation authority: passenger complaints go to the Government Office of the Capital City Budapest, Consumer Protection Department (kormanyhivatalok.hu, fogyasztovedelem@bfkh.gov.hu). The European Commission publishes the list for every other country.
A rejection with no named cause is not a defence. “Operational reasons” on its own does not discharge the airline’s burden under Article 5(3) — it has to identify the event and show what it did to limit the delay. Ask for the specific cause in writing, then test it against extraordinary circumstances.
How long does Wizz Air take to reply to a claim?
Its own EC261 page said “We will respond to your claim within 30 days” when we read it on 6 September 2026. If that passes with no substantive answer, send one dated chaser, then take the file to AviationADR (UK flights) or the enforcement body where you departed.
Can Wizz Air pay compensation as account credit?
Only if you agree in writing. Article 7(3) pays compensation in cash, by electronic bank transfer, bank order or cheque; a travel voucher needs your signed agreement. You can decline credit and ask for a transfer, and you do not lose the claim by declining.
Can I claim on a cheap Wizz Air fare?
Yes. The Article 7 amount is fixed by distance and has no relationship to the fare, so €250 on a €20 ticket is the ordinary result. The airline cannot reduce it because the ticket was cheap; only the Article 7(2) re-routing reduction changes the figure.
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.