European Parliament votes in favor of new Regulation

Today, the European Parliament voted on the proposal of the European Commission to make changes in the existing EU Regulation 261/2004. The current Regulation states that passengers who experience a flight delay of more than 3 hours are entitled to compensation. Also when a flight is cancelled or you miss your connection, you are entitled to compensation.

Flight delay compensation

The amount of compensation that passengers are entitled to will change in the new Regulation, as proposed by the European Commission. However, the European Parliament came forward with amendments to the Commission’s proposal. This proposal, including the amendments, was approved by the Parliament today.

You will still be entitled to compensation when you are delayed 3 hours on a short haul flight. However, the medium haul flights will be changed to 5 hours and the long haul flights will be changed to a 7 hour delay before you are entitled to compensation. Also, the connection between flight distance and the amount of compensation will be different.

EUclaim did research on the consequences for passengers when these changes are put into practice.

Consequences new Regulation

When the changes will be official, this is what will happen to passenger rights:

• Flight distance 0 – 3500 km –> delay more than 3 hours –> 300,- euros per person
• Flight distance 3500 – 6000 km –> delay more than 5 hours –> 400,- per person
• Flight distance 6000 or more –> delay more than 7 hours –> 600,- per person

Our investigation shows that this would mean that from all delayed flights, 18% less passengers will be entitled to compensation within the new rules, compared to the current Regulation.