Flight Delay Compensation UK: How to Claim £220 to £520 Yourself

UK261 is the UK's own version of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, kept in domestic law after Brexit. It pays a fixed sum per passenger when a flight arrives late and the reason sits within the airline's control. The sum is set by distance, not by what you paid for the ticket. A passenger on a £29 fare and a passenger on a £600 fare on the same aircraft are owed exactly the same amount.

These are the figures published by the Civil Aviation Authority:

Three details decide most arguments, and airlines rely on passengers not knowing them.

The delay is measured on arrival, not departure. A flight that pushes back four hours late but makes up time in the air and lands two hours and fifty minutes behind schedule pays nothing. A flight that leaves on time, diverts, and gets you in three hours and ten minutes late pays in full. The clock stops when the aircraft door opens at your final destination, which the Court of Justice confirmed in Sturgeon (C-402/07) and Germanwings (C-452/13). If you connected on a single booking, the delay is measured against your arrival at the final destination, not the point where you missed the connection.

It is per passenger, not per booking. Four people on one reference travelling over 3,500 km and landing five hours late are owed £520 each. That is £2,080 on a single claim form. Children with their own seat count. Infants on a lap generally do not, since they are not carrying a fare-paying ticket in the usual sense.

Compensation is separate from everything else. It does not replace a refund, and it does not replace the airline's duty of care. If you waited at the gate for six hours, the airline also owed you meals, refreshments and communication, and a hotel plus transfers if you were kept overnight. If you paid for those yourself because nobody at the desk offered anything, keep the receipts and claim them alongside the fixed sum. Those are two different entitlements in the same letter.

Since Brexit there are two near-identical regimes, and the one that applies depends on where your flight took off and who operated it. Getting this wrong is the most common reason a well-written claim goes to the wrong place and dies there.

• Departing from a UK airport: UK261 applies, whatever the airline's nationality. A Qatar Airways flight out of Manchester is covered.
• Arriving in the UK: UK261 applies if the operating carrier is a UK or EU airline. A British Airways flight from New York to Heathrow is covered. A Delta flight on the same route is not.
• Departing from an EU airport: EC261 applies, whatever the airline. Your delayed return from Alicante to Bristol falls under the EU regulation, not UK261, even though you are a UK passenger flying home.
• Arriving in the EU: EC261 applies if the operating carrier is an EU airline.

The practical consequence sits at the end of the process. A claim under UK261 escalates to a UK dispute scheme and, if needed, a UK court. A claim under EC261 on that Alicante departure escalates to the Spanish enforcement body, AESA, or to an EU dispute scheme. The letter to the airline is nearly the same either way. The escalation route is not, so decide which regime applies before you write, and cite that regulation by name.

One more point worth knowing: the operating carrier owes the money, not the airline whose name is on your booking. If you bought a British Airways codeshare that was actually flown by another carrier, you claim from the airline that operated the aircraft.

On 15 June 2026 the European Parliament and the Council reached a political agreement on the first substantial revision of Regulation 261/2004 since it was adopted. If you have searched this topic in the last few weeks you will have seen a lot of noise about it, some of it contradictory. Here is what can actually be said with confidence.

It is not in force. A political agreement is a negotiating milestone, not law. The text still has to be formally adopted and published in the Official Journal, and it then applies only after a transition period. Publication is expected late in 2026, which puts application some time in 2027. Every flight taken before that date is governed by the rules as they stand now.

The detail is still moving. Reporting on what the agreement contains has been genuinely inconsistent, particularly on whether the three hour trigger survives and what happens to the compensation bands. Until the consolidated text is published, treat any specific figure attributed to the reform as provisional. What commentators do broadly agree on is that a large part of the package codifies existing case law rather than rewriting it, and that airlines will face firmer deadlines for acknowledging and answering claims.

It is an EU instrument, and UK261 is not an EU instrument. This is the part most articles miss. UK261 became free-standing domestic law under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. Brussels amending Regulation 261/2004 does not automatically pull that change into UK law. A separate decision by the UK government and Parliament would be required. So if your flight departed a UK airport, the EU reform has no direct bearing on your claim at all.

Why this matters in practice: some passengers are already being told their claim is affected by "the new rules". If you get that response, reply asking the airline to name the legal instrument it is relying on, the date it entered into force, and the provision that applies to your flight. An airline that cannot answer those three questions is not applying a rule, it is testing whether you will go away.

There is one real defence: extraordinary circumstances. If the disruption was caused by something outside the airline's actual control, and it could not have been avoided even with all reasonable measures, no compensation is due. Your right to a refund or re-routing and to care during the wait survives regardless.

Genuinely extraordinary in most cases: severe weather at either end, air traffic control restrictions and ATC strikes, airport closures, security alerts, bird strikes, and instructions from air traffic management. Political instability and medical emergencies on board also qualify.

Now the part airlines would rather you did not read. The following are generally not extraordinary circumstances, and claims rejected on these grounds are frequently overturned:

• Technical faults. Routine component failure, wear and tear and unexpected mechanical problems are treated as inherent in running an airline. This was settled in Wallentin-Hermann (C-549/07) and reinforced in van der Lans (C-257/14), and the CAA states plainly that ordinary technical problems should not be considered extraordinary.
• Crew shortages and rostering failures. Sickness, crew running out of legal duty hours, and a missing captain are operational matters within the airline's control.
• Strikes by the airline's own staff. In Airhelp v SAS (C-28/20) the Court of Justice held that a strike organised by unions representing the carrier's own employees is not, in principle, an extraordinary circumstance. A strike by third parties such as air traffic controllers or airport ground handlers is a different matter.
• Knock-on delays from an earlier rotation, unless the airline can show the original cause was itself extraordinary and that it took reasonable steps to limit the consequences.

The burden of proof sits with the airline, not with you. That is the single most useful sentence in this guide. A rejection that says "due to operational reasons" or "an unforeseen technical issue" has not discharged that burden and does not need to be accepted. Write back asking for the specific cause, the aircraft registration, and the entry in the technical log or the ATC restriction reference. Ask what alternative arrangements were considered. Airlines settle a meaningful share of claims at exactly this point, because producing the evidence costs more than paying £220.

The window is far longer than most people assume, and airlines are not in the habit of correcting the assumption.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland you have six years from the date of the flight to issue a court claim, under section 9 of the Limitation Act 1980. In Scotland it is five years. Airlines argued for years that the two year limit in the Montreal Convention applied instead, which would have wiped out most historic claims. That argument was rejected by the Court of Appeal in Dawson v Thomson Airways in 2014, and the six year position has held since.

So a flight from summer 2021 is very likely still claimable in England today. You will need your booking confirmation and evidence of the actual arrival time, and historic flight records for most commercial routes remain available through public flight tracking services.

Two shorter clocks do apply further down the process. If you take a rejected claim to an approved dispute scheme, you generally need to do so within twelve months of the airline's final response. And note that on 6 April 2026 the alternative dispute resolution provisions of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 replaced the previous ADR Regulations, and the CAA has said it is reviewing its ADR guidance in light of that. The two aviation schemes continue to operate, but check the current position on the CAA site before you file rather than relying on an older article.

Airlines process these at volume. A letter that gives them everything they need to pay, and nothing to query, moves faster than a letter that tells the story of your ruined weekend. Aim for one page and include all of the following:

• Flight number, date, departure and arrival airports
• Booking reference and the full name of every passenger you are claiming for
• Scheduled arrival time and actual arrival time, with the delay stated in hours and minutes
• The great circle distance of the route and the band it falls into
• The exact amount claimed, per passenger and in total, with the article cited: Article 7(1)(a) for £220, 7(1)(b) for £350, 7(1)(c) for £520
• Any duty of care expenses claimed separately, itemised, with receipts attached
• A clear statement that you are claiming cash and will not accept vouchers or air miles in substitution
• Bank account details for payment
• A deadline, normally 14 days, and a short line stating where you will escalate if it passes

Two things to leave out. Do not speculate about the cause of the delay, because you do not have to prove it and guessing wrong hands the airline a talking point. And do not describe your inconvenience at length. The sum is fixed by distance. A missed wedding does not increase it, and the paragraph about the wedding is the paragraph that makes the letter look like a complaint rather than a legal claim.

Tone matters more than people expect. "I am claiming £350 per passenger under Article 7(1)(b) of UK261 in respect of a four hour twenty minute arrival delay on flight XX123 from London Gatwick to Athens on 14 June 2026" tells the reader you know the framework. "My flight was really delayed and I want to be compensated" invites a goodwill voucher worth a fraction of your entitlement.

Replace everything in square brackets. Send it through the airline's formal complaints channel rather than a general enquiry form, and keep a copy with the date you sent it.

[Your name]
[Your address]
[Email and phone]
[Date]

[Airline name], Customer Relations
[Address or online submission reference]

Re: Claim for compensation under UK261, flight [XX123], [date]

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to claim compensation under the Air Passenger Rights and
Air Travel Organisers' Licensing (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019,
which retain Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 in UK law.

Flight details
Flight number: [XX123]
Route: [London Gatwick (LGW) to Athens (ATH)]
Date: [14 June 2026]
Booking reference: [ABC123]
Passengers: [full names, one per line]

Scheduled arrival: [16:35]
Actual arrival: [20:55]
Delay on arrival: [4 hours 20 minutes]

Amount claimed
The great circle distance of this route is approximately [2,400] km,
which falls within the 1,500 km to 3,500 km band. I therefore claim
[£350] per passenger under Article 7(1)(b), being [£1,400] for
[4] passengers in total.

I am also claiming [£62.40] in expenses incurred during the delay,
itemised on the attached receipts, under Article 9.

I am claiming payment in cash. I do not accept vouchers, travel credit
or air miles in place of the sums set out above.

Payment details
Account name: [name]
Sort code: [00-00-00]
Account number: [00000000]

I would be grateful for payment within 14 days of the date of this
letter. If the claim is refused, please provide the specific cause of
the delay together with the evidence relied upon, as the burden of
establishing extraordinary circumstances rests with the operating
carrier. In the absence of payment or a substantiated response I will
refer the matter to the relevant alternative dispute resolution scheme
and, if necessary, issue a claim in the county court.

Yours faithfully,

[Your name]

If you would rather not assemble this from scratch, our generator produces the same structure with the correct regulation, article and distance band already filled in for your route, and exports it as a DOCX you can edit and send.

A first rejection is normal and is not the end of the claim. There is a defined ladder, each rung is free or close to it, and airlines behave differently at each one.

Step one: get a final response. Reply to the rejection asking for the specific cause and the evidence, and state that you are treating their answer as the final response for escalation purposes. This matters procedurally, because the twelve month clock for a dispute scheme runs from that point.

Step two: alternative dispute resolution. Most large UK carriers belong to one of two approved schemes, AviationADR or CEDR. Membership is listed on the airline's complaints page and on the CAA website, so check which one covers your carrier rather than guessing. The service is free to passengers, the decision binds the airline if you accept it, and cases typically take a couple of months. Submit the same letter with the airline's correspondence attached.

Step three: the CAA. If your airline does not belong to a scheme, the Civil Aviation Authority can take up the case. It has no power to order payment in the way a scheme does, but airlines are sensitive to the regulator's view of their compliance record.

Step four: court. For amounts of this size the small claims track through Money Claim Online is straightforward, costs a modest issue fee that is recoverable if you win, and does not require a solicitor. Airlines settle a large proportion of flight delay claims before a hearing date, because defending a £350 claim costs them considerably more than £350. Send a letter before claim first, giving 14 days, as the court will expect you to have done so.

The pattern worth understanding is that persistence is the variable that decides most of these cases. The regulation is not ambiguous about what you are owed. What airlines rely on is that a rejection email ends the conversation, and for most people it does.

You have seen the adverts. No win, no fee, we handle everything. The fee is typically a quarter to a third of whatever is recovered, and on fixed statutory sums that is real money:

To be fair to them, these firms earn their fee in one specific scenario: the airline has dug in, the case genuinely needs litigating, and the alternative is that you drop it. If you have already been refused twice and know you will not take it further, a third of something beats all of nothing, and some of these firms are very good at the litigation.

But that is not the common case. The common case is a straightforward delay on a route with an obvious cause, where the airline pays on a properly drafted letter. Handing over £156 on a family claim for a well-worded email is a poor trade, and it is a trade most passengers make only because writing the letter feels harder than it is.

That is the gap DocuGov.ai was built for. Our generator produces a complete, regulation-accurate claim letter for a flat fee of around £7, with the correct regulation, article, distance band and escalation wording already in place. You send it yourself, and you keep every penny the airline pays. On a £520 claim that is the difference between £513 and £364.

This guide is general information about UK261 and EC261 and is not legal advice. Compensation depends on the facts of your flight. Check the current position on the CAA website or take advice on your own circumstances.