Flight Delay Compensation Calculator – UK261 & EU261

Flight delay compensation calculator for UK261 and EU261

This flight delay compensation calculator checks whether a delayed, cancelled or overbooked flight entitles you to a fixed payment under the UK and EU air passenger rules, and how much: £220, £350 or £520 under UK261, and €250, €400 or €600 under EU261, per passenger. Enter where your journey started, its final destination, the airline and what happened, and it works out the great-circle distance, which scheme covers the flight and whether any reduction applies.

Because many readers fly to and from India and the United States, it also explains what the Indian DGCA rules and the US Department of Transportation rules give you on the same route — very different from the fixed European payments. It is information to help you decide whether to claim, not legal advice.

How to use the Flight Delay Compensation Calculator

1. Type the departure airport of your first flight and your final destination (IATA codes such as LHR and DEL, or city names). For connecting flights on one booking, use the whole journey.
2. Choose the airline that operated the flight and the cause the airline gave you.
3. Pick Delayed, Cancelled or Denied boarding, then fill in the arrival delay, the notice you were given or the re-routing times.
4. For Indian or US routes, open the extra details to add the block time and fare.
5. Read each scheme’s card and copy the result to use in your claim to the airline.

Flight Delay Compensation Calculator features

How much compensation for a delayed flight

Under both schemes the amount depends only on distance and how late you reached your final destination — not on the ticket price. You need to arrive 3 hours or more late (the Court of Justice of the EU’s Sturgeon ruling of 2009 treats such delays like cancellations). The arrival time is when the aircraft doors open at the gate.

Which flights are covered

• EU261: every flight departing an airport in the EU, Iceland, Norway or Switzerland, and flights into those countries operated by an EU airline.
• UK261: every flight departing a UK airport, flights into the UK on a UK or EU airline, and flights into the EU on a UK airline.
• A flight from Dubai to London on a non-European airline, or from Delhi to New York, is covered by neither — check the local rules instead.
• If both schemes cover a flight (Paris to London on a UK airline, for example) you can claim under one of them, not both.

Extraordinary circumstances and other exceptions

No compensation is due if the airline proves the delay or cancellation came from extraordinary circumstances it could not have avoided with all reasonable measures: severe weather, air-traffic control restrictions, security risks, political unrest, or strikes by airport or air-traffic staff. Routine technical faults, crew shortages and strikes by the airline’s own staff are generally not extraordinary. Your right to meals, refreshments and a hotel when needed applies either way.

For cancellations, nothing is due if you were told 14 days or more ahead, or 7–13 days ahead with re-routing leaving no more than 2 hours earlier and arriving less than 4 hours later, or under 7 days ahead with re-routing leaving no more than 1 hour earlier and arriving less than 2 hours later.

India and the United States

India’s DGCA requires compensation for cancellations announced less than 24 hours ahead (₹5,000, ₹7,500 or ₹10,000 by block time, or the one-way basic fare plus fuel charge if lower) and for denied boarding (200% of that fare up to ₹10,000, or 400% up to ₹20,000), but only care and refund options for delays. In the US there is no federal compensation for delays; you can get a refund if a flight is cancelled or delayed 3 hours (domestic) or 6 hours (international) and you choose not to fly, and involuntary bumping pays up to $1,075 or $2,150. To plan connections that absorb delays, try the Layover Calculator.