New EU air passenger rights 2026: what changes

What was decided, and when

On 7 July 2026 the European Parliament approved the revised air passenger rights regulation by 646 votes to 12, with 3 abstentions. The Council gave its final clearance on 13 July 2026. That makes it the first substantive overhaul since 2004.

The regulation enters into force 20 days after publication in the EU Official Journal. Member States and airlines then get a further year to prepare before the rules actually bite. In practice: the new regulation does not apply to flights taken today.

The amounts stay at €250, €400 and €600

The industry lobbied for years for lower compensation and a higher delay threshold. It did not get either. The grid is unchanged, and so is the three-hour arrival-delay trigger:

• €250 for flights of 1,500 km or less
• €400 for intra-EU flights over 1,500 km and other flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km
• €600 for other flights over 3,500 km
• Threshold for compensation: arriving three hours or more late at your final destination

The big change: nine months to claim

This is the part that will affect you most. Under the new regulation you get nine months from the flight to submit a compensation request — one single deadline, across every Member State.

Today that deadline is set nationally and varies wildly: six years in the UK, five in France and Spain, three in Germany, two in the Netherlands, about one year in Italy and Poland. For most travellers, nine months is therefore a sharp narrowing, not an improvement.

See the deadline that applies to your flight right now, country by country →

In return, airlines must answer within 30 days

Against that shorter window sits a hard obligation on the carrier: within 30 days of your request it must either pay, or invoke extraordinary circumstances. No more months of silence, no more request vanishing into a queue.

That is a real gain, because silence is the core problem today. Passengers who have to chase an airline three times before anything happens simply give up — which is exactly what long response times deliver in practice.

What this means for your flight today

Until the new rules apply, your claim is assessed under Regulation 261/2004 as it stands, with your national limitation period. You lose no rights whatsoever because the revision was adopted.

But the direction of travel is clear. If you still have a flight from the past few years that you never claimed for, waiting from here on is pure downside. File what you can still file.

What we do

We track the legislative change and assess every claim under the law that applied on your flight date — not under a rule that starts next year. Run the free check with your flight number and date; within two minutes you will know where you stand, including the deadline that counts for you.