Flight delayed or cancelled in Spain: your EU261 compensation (€250–600)

What Regulation 261/2004 covers

EU261 applies to any flight departing from an EU airport, whatever the airline, and to flights arriving into the EU when operated by an EU carrier. Madrid–New York on any airline is covered; New York–Madrid only if an EU airline operates it.

Claim my compensation — free

Compensation under Article 7 depends on flight distance, not ticket price: €250 for routes up to 1,500 km; €400 for 1,500–3,500 km and for all intra-EU flights over 1,500 km; €600 for routes over 3,500 km outside the EU. It is halved only if you were re-routed and still arrived less than 2, 3 or 4 hours late, depending on distance.

Three triggers create the right to compensation: arriving at your destination 3 or more hours late (set by the EU Court of Justice in the Sturgeon ruling), a cancellation announced with less than 14 days' notice, and denied boarding due to overbooking.

The airline escapes only by proving «extraordinary circumstances»: severe weather, air traffic control restrictions, or strikes external to the airline (an airport strike, for example). Claiming them is not enough — the airline must prove them.

The EU Court of Justice has shut down the favourite excuses: a strike by the airline's OWN crew is NOT extraordinary, and most technical faults are not either, because they are part of normal airline operations. «Operational reasons» is not a legal defence at all.

Situations covered

• Delays of 3 hours or more on arrival. What counts is the arrival time at your final destination (doors open), not departure. A flight that leaves late but lands 2h40 behind schedule pays nothing; at 3h05 it pays in full.
• Cancellations announced with less than 14 days' notice. With 7–13 days' notice the airline can still escape if it offered an alternative flight at very similar times; with under 7 days, the margins are minimal.
• Denied boarding against your will, usually overbooking. If you did not volunteer your seat in exchange for a deal, compensation is due immediately, on top of care and the refund-or-rerouting choice.
• A missed connection within a single booking. If the first leg was late and you reached your final destination 3+ hours behind schedule, compensation is due and is calculated on the full journey distance — even if each leg alone looked minor.

Your rights: amounts and care

• €250, €400 or €600 per passenger depending on distance — including children who had a seat. It does not matter that the ticket cost €20: the amount is never reduced for cheap fares and is paid per person, not per booking.
• Care rights (Article 9) apply regardless of compensation: meals and drinks proportionate to the wait, two communications, and a hotel with transfers if you are stranded overnight. If the airline provides nothing, pay, keep every receipt, and claim it back.
• On a cancellation you also choose (Article 8): a full ticket refund within 7 days, or re-routing to your destination at the earliest opportunity or on a date that suits you. The choice is yours, not the airline's.
• Vouchers and miles can replace cash only with your express written consent. You are entitled to say «no, I want the payment in money» — and saying so costs you nothing.
• In Spain you have 5 years to claim, the general term of the Civil Code. A flight from 2023 can still be claimed today.

Deadlines: how long you have

• Time limit to claim: 5 years from the flight (Article 1964 of the Spanish Civil Code) — one of the longest in Europe. Do not let an airline tell you «it's too late» for any flight after July 2021.
• After sending your written claim to the airline, reasonable practice is to allow 1 month for an answer. AESA (Agencia Estatal de Seguridad Aérea, Spain's aviation safety agency) in fact expects you to show you claimed to the airline first and got a refusal or silence.
• The AESA complaint is free and, since the 2023 alternative-dispute-resolution reform, its decision on EU261 compensation is binding on the airline if you accept it. That is the core argument against paying commissions: the decisive escalation step costs nothing.
• On cancellations, keep the refund clock in view: if you chose a ticket refund, the airline must pay it within 7 days. If it drags, add it to the claim.
• Court comes last and without hurry: with the prior claim and an AESA decision in hand, most cases never reach a courtroom. If yours does, claims up to €2,000 go through a simplified procedure with no lawyer required.

Evidence to keep

• Boarding pass and booking confirmation (the email is fine). They prove you had a confirmed seat and establish the route distance, which sets your amount.
• The airline's own delay or cancellation notice: email, SMS, app notification, a photo of the airport screen. It is the carrier's admission of the facts and of when it warned you.
• Proof of the actual arrival time: a screenshot from the airline's app or a flight tracker, a passport stamp, even your phone's location history. The 3-hour line is fought over minutes.
• Receipts for meals, hotel and transfers during the disruption, plus all later correspondence with the airline. Care expenses are reimbursed on top of compensation.

How to claim, step by step

• Identify your trigger and your amount: 3h+ delay, cancellation with under 14 days' notice, overbooking, or a missed connection on one booking? Check the route distance (any airport-distance calculator works) against the table: €250, €400 or €600.
• Gather the evidence: boarding pass, the airline's notice, arrival-time proof, expense receipts. Ten minutes now saves months of argument later.
• Send a written claim to the OPERATING airline — the one that flew the plane, not the travel agency or ticket seller — citing Regulation (EC) 261/2004 and the exact amount. Use their official form, or a burofax (Spanish certified letter with proof of content) if you want a certified date. It is a one-page letter, not a legal procedure.
• If offered a voucher or miles, accept only if you genuinely prefer them. Without your express consent they cannot replace cash, and refusing them does not weaken your claim.
• If the airline refuses or stays silent for a month, file the free complaint with AESA, attaching everything. Its decision on the compensation is binding on the airline if you accept it.
• Only if all of that fails, consider court: up to €2,000 it is a simplified procedure with no mandatory lawyer, and a favourable AESA decision arrives as weighty evidence.

Mistakes that cost money

• Signing away your rights at the desk for a voucher, miles or a reduced «gesture». Vouchers are only valid with your express consent — and once a waiver is signed, recovering the difference is an uphill fight.
• Taking «extraordinary circumstances» at face value because the airline's email says so. Ask WHICH circumstance exactly and demand proof: the carrier's own crew strikes and most technical faults do not qualify, per the EU Court of Justice.
• Giving 25–50% of your compensation to a claim farm for drafting a one-page letter. On €600 that can be €300 in commission — while AESA does the real enforcement work for free.
• Letting the airline's silence run indefinitely. One month without an answer already opens the AESA door; every extra month of waiting is your money parked for no legal benefit.
• Losing boarding passes, receipts or emails. Without proof of the booking and the arrival time, the claim becomes your word against theirs.
• Claiming against the travel agency or booking site. EU261 compensation is owed by the OPERATING airline, even if someone else sold you the ticket.

If the airline says no

• A «no» — or a month of silence — closes nothing: it is the entry ticket to the next step. Do not loop through customer-service chat; escalate.
• File the complaint with AESA, Spain's aviation agency: it is free, done online, and since the 2023 reform its decision on EU261 compensation binds the airline if you accept it. Attach your prior claim and the airline's answer (or its silence).
• Strengthen the file with what weighs most: proof of the real arrival time, the airline's own notice, and — if they plead a crew strike or a technical fault — the EU Court of Justice case law that rules both out as extraordinary.
• If the airline ignores even the AESA decision, court remains: up to €2,000 through the simplified procedure, no mandatory lawyer, with Spain's 5-year limitation period running in your favour.

Related guides

Frequently asked questions

Official sources