Avianca Delayed or Cancelled Flight Compensation and Refund

Reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

Last Updated: April 23, 2024

Last year, Avianca landed Cirium’s coveted title as the most on-time airline in the world. With 87.73% of their flights arriving on-time, the carrier became the first Colombian airline to ever achieve this status. In 2022, the airline ranked 6th place with an 83.48% punctuality score.

Avianca CEO, Frederico Pedreira said in a statement on their site, 

Being ahead of world-class airlines is a milestone that positions Colombia as a reference in the industry. Being the most punctual airline is a tremendous achievement of the more than 14,000 people who are part of our team and are committed to connecting Latin America with the world. Their work and coordination with allies, suppliers, and authorities have allowed us to achieve an exceptional result that translates into on-time, safe, and baggage-on-destination service for our customers.

Your Air Passenger Rights with Avianca

When Avianca departs from an EU or UK airport, the passengers aboard the flight are automatically protected under the laws of those regions. The United Kingdom air passengers rights are described in UK261 - a set of regulations that defend your rights when you have delays, cancellations, denied boarding, or missed connections.

At the same time, the European Union has an almost identical set of regulations known as EU261 which performs the same function as its UK counterpart.

Both rules entitle passengers, of all nationalities, to both cash and care compensation depending on your situation.

Avianca Flight Delay Compensation 

For March 2024, Avianca had an on-time performance of 83.88% according to Cirium, putting it in 5th place for Latin American airlines.

Even an airline with a top-notch punctuality score like Avianca can have flight delays. When they experience these disruptions on flights departing from the EU or UK, passengers aboard can at least benefit from airline compensation. Here’s what you can expect from Avianca when you have delays of different lengths of time:

• 2 Hour Delay - Access to communication, food and drinks
• 3 Hour Delay - When your delay time reaches 3 hours, then you may be eligible for monetary compensation if the delay was within the airline’s control and not caused by extraordinary circumstances.
• 5 Hour Delay - For delays spanning this amount of time, Aviance is required by law to offer you a choice of replacement flight to your destination OR a full ticket refund.

Avianca Cancelled Flight Compensation 

Few things can send your travel plans into a tailspin like a cancelled flight. Fortunately, if this happens to you in the UK or EU, you can count on the fact that the Avianca will have to help you get to your planned destination and also compensate you for your trouble when they are to blame for the interruption.

Sometimes you might have a flight cancelled well ahead of time. If this happens, when Avianca gives you more than 2 weeks notice, you won’t be able to claim compensation, but you will be able to get a refund or rebook your flight at no additional cost.

Compensation usually kicks in when your Avianca flight is cancelled with less than 2 weeks notice. Again, you will be given a new flight, but if it doesn’t suit your travel plans, then you can also get a refund. Be careful about accepting vouchers in place of a refund. They might seem like a good idea at the moment, but the fine print can have lots of restrictions, blackout dates, and short expiry dates. Worst of all, accepting one may eliminate your chances for cash compensation later. Just be sure you completely understand what you’re accepting.

Now, if you accept a replacement flight, but it doesn’t leave until the next day, Avianca must foot the bill for your one-night hotel stay as well as transport to and from the hotel. Additionally, if you’re left to wait for 2 hours or more for your new flight, then you must be given the same provisions (food, drink, access to communication) as you would for delays.

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Avianca Denied Boarding & Missed Connections

Were you involuntarily denied boarding on your Avianca flight? If you were because the flight sold more tickets than seats, then you must be given a rebooked flight or a refund as well as cash compensation.

Those passengers who miss a connecting flight will also be given a replacement flight or a refund. The sticking point here is that in order to receive monetary compensation, your missed connection must be the result of a prior Avianca flight disruption on the same itinerary, and it must be caused by something within Avianca’s control, like staffing shortages or a scheduling mishap. 

Financial Compensation from Avianca

Cash compensation amounts are decided based on two factors:

• How late you arrive at your final destination
• The distance of your disrupted flight

Compensation amounts can range from £220/€250 to £520/€600 as seen in the table below.

* Avianca might try to reduce this amount by as much as 50%, but AirAdvisor always works to get the full amount.

How Extraordinary Circumstances Affect Compensation

We’ve mentioned extraordinary circumstances a few times, so you might be wondering what this means for you as an Avianca passenger. Whenever a flight disruption is caused by something outside what the airline can control, it’s called extraordinary circumstances. If you’re told that your flight was interrupted because of this, then you won’t get cash compensation unfortunately. 

Extraordinary circumstances can be anything from airport strikes to air traffic control restrictions on airspace to extreme weather events or civil unrest. All these situations are impossible for Aviance to control or prevent, and as a result, they are not liable to compensate affected passengers.

When you file your compensation claim, don’t be surprised if the airline tells you that they were unable to control the flight disruption. Because of this, it’s important to always arm yourself ahead of time by finding out what caused your delay or cancellation while you’re still in the airport. Do whatever you can to gather proof to support your claim. The more documentation and information you can provide, the better.

If this all seems daunting, you can check to see how much compensation you’re eligible to receive, and let AirAdvisor handle the claims process for you!

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All you have to do is submit the application and wait for the compensation to be received.

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