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Every change in the new EU261 rules, explained
The biggest rewrite of the EU261 rules in more than 20 years cleared the European Parliament this week, and headlines about new passenger rights have left plenty of travellers wondering whether the old ones still apply. They do, and they will keep applying until the second half of 2027 at the earliest.
On Tuesday 7 July 2026, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) approved the reform of EU261 by 646 votes to 12. EU261 is the regulation that entitles you to compensation of up to €600 when a flight is heavily delayed or cancelled, but this reform reaches much further than compensation.
It changes how families are seated, how disabled passengers are protected, what a ticket price has to include, and even whether an airline can turn you away for printing your own boarding pass. Until the new rules take effect, every claim runs under the current version of EU261 compensation, exactly as it has since 2004.
The new EU261 rules at a glance
| What changes | Today | New rules (from late 2027) |
| Delay compensation threshold | 3 hours | 3 hours (unchanged) |
| Compensation amounts | €250 / €400 / €600 by distance | €250 / €400 / €600 (unchanged) |
| Time limit to claim | Varies by country, often several years | 9 months everywhere |
| Airline response to a claim | No fixed deadline | 30 days to pay or explain |
| Refund after cancellation | On request, often slow | Automatic if you choose a refund |
| Claim instructions | Rarely provided | Sent within 4 days, no app or account required |
| Family seating | Adjacent seats often a paid extra | Free adjacent seat with any child under 14 |
| Cabin bag in the price | Added during booking | Carry-on included in the first price you see |
| Personal item | Depends on the airline | One free small bag or backpack, guaranteed |
| Return flight after a missed outbound | Airline may cancel it | Protected, no extra fee |
| Name correction and printed boarding pass fees | Charged by some airlines | Banned |
| Extraordinary circumstances | Decided case by case in court | Named in an open list in the law |
| Long-haul compensation | Full amount | Airlines may cut it by 50% with rerouting or arrival no more than 4 hours late |
Your 3-hour compensation right survives
The number that mattered most in this reform was three. For more than a decade, airlines lobbied to raise the threshold at which flight delay compensation kicks in from 3 hours to 5 or more, and earlier drafts from the Council of the EU, where national governments have their say, proposed exactly that. The final text keeps the threshold at 3 hours.
How much you can claim under the new rules
The EU261 compensation amounts stay where they are too: €250 for flights up to 1,500 km, €400 for longer flights within the EU and all other journeys between 1,500 km and 3,500 km, and €600 for everything beyond that. Your right to a refund or rerouting when a flight is cancelled less than 14 days before departure survives as well, as does compensation for denied boarding.
Virginijus Sinkevičius, vice-chair of Parliament's transport committee, summed up the result, saying,
We have good news for everyone who flies. We worked hard to make sure passengers did not lose the rights they already had, while securing better protection for families, people with reduced mobility, and others who need it most.
Compensation claims will be easier
Once the new rules are in effect, airlines will have to send you clear instructions on how to submit a compensation claim within 4 days of the end of your journey. They will not be allowed to hide the process behind a mandatory app download or a user account. If you choose a refund instead of rerouting after a cancellation, the money must be issued automatically.
A 30-day deadline for airlines to respond
Once you claim, the airline has 30 days to either pay or explain exactly why your claim has been denied, including pointing you to the next step in the complaints process. Vague rejection letters with no reasoning will no longer work, which matters because the difference between a refund and compensation is precisely where many airlines currently blur the lines.
The new 9-month time limit to claim
The time limit to claim EU261 compensation will be 9 months from the date of the flight disruption. This single EU-wide deadline will replace the current patchwork of national time limits. Once the new rules are implemented, filing a claim promptly will matter more than ever before.
Anton Radchenko, aviation lawyer and founder of AirAdvisor, sees that deadline as the change passengers will feel most.
The three-hour rule was the airlines' biggest target, and it survived. What concerns me is the nine-month deadline. We regularly recover compensation for passengers whose flights were disrupted two or three years ago, and claims like those will disappear under the new rules. If you have an old delay or cancellation that you haven’t claimed, act on it before the law changes.
If your flight was delayed 3 hours or more, or cancelled at short notice, in the past few years, you can check your eligibility in a few minutes.
Families will sit together without paying extra
Anyone who has booked a budget flight with children knows the trap. You either pay for seat selection or you gamble on the airline's automatic allocation and hope you are not seated ten rows away from your six-year-old child.
Under the new rules, airlines will be obliged to seat any person accompanying a child under the age of 14 in an adjacent seat, without charging extra.
The same free adjacent seating right applies to anyone accompanying a passenger with a disability or reduced mobility, and to pregnant women. In each case, the person who needs support and the person providing it must be seated together at no additional cost.
Stronger protection for disabled passengers
Passengers with disabilities and reduced mobility gain a protection that closes a real gap in the current rules. If you miss your flight because the airport failed to get you to the gate on time, the airline must now provide compensation, rerouting and assistance.
Right now, the airport provides wheelchair assistance, but the airline operates the flight. If the assistance fails and you miss your flight, neither one is clearly responsible for making it up to you. The new rules fix that. The airline must pay you compensation, book you a new flight and provide assistance, even if the airport caused the problem.
Add the free adjacent seat for the person travelling with you, and assistance now covers the whole journey, not just check-in.
What changes when you book and board
Cabin bag included in the advertised price
The reform rewrites several of the small print rules that shape what you actually pay.
Every ticket will include the right to bring one personal item on board free of charge, such as a small bag or backpack. Airlines, booking sites, and price comparison portals must also display fares inclusive of carry-on luggage from the very start of the booking process. This means the fare you see on a booking site will be closer to the price you actually pay. Airlines can still sell cheaper fares to passengers travelling with no hand luggage at all, but airlines have to advertise the bag-inclusive price first and offer the discount second.
No more name correction and boarding pass fees
Airlines will no longer be able to charge you for fixing a spelling mistake in your name, or for printing your boarding pass once you have checked in. You can get your boarding pass digitally without creating an account or downloading an app, and if you print it yourself at home, the airline must accept it at the gate.
Your return survives a missed outbound flight
Today, if you skip the outbound flight, the airline can cancel your return ticket. Under the new rules, it cannot. Your return seat stays yours, at no extra charge.
Where airlines gained ground
The reform was a negotiation, and airlines won some ground too. On their longest routes, an airline can cut your compensation in half if it reroutes you to your destination, or if you arrive no more than 4 hours late.
Food and hotel support gets a limit as well. Under the new rules, the airline still owes you refreshments after 2 hours of waiting, but it only has to pay for a hotel for up to 3 nights when the disruption is outside its control.
What counts as extraordinary circumstances under the new rules
Extraordinary circumstances are events an airline can blame to avoid paying compensation. Until now, courts have decided what counts on a case by case basis. The new law names them for the first time, and they include: natural disasters, war, severe weather, unruly passengers, and strikes by airport staff, air traffic control or ground handlers, among other events that can still qualify.
What did not make the list
Strikes by the airline's own crew are not an extraordinary circumstance, and technical faults remain the airline's responsibility. So if a rejection letter blames circumstances beyond the airline's control, do not take it at face value. The airline must prove those circumstances, not you.
When the new EU261 rules take effect
The new EU261 rules could start applying to flights around the second half of 2027. There is no official date yet, because three steps still have to happen first.
The three steps from vote to implementation
First, the Council of the EU, made up of the governments of the member states, must confirm the deal. That is expected by early August 2026. Second, the law is published in the Official Journal of the EU, the register every EU law appears in, and it formally takes effect 20 days later. Third, countries and airlines get one year to prepare, from rewriting booking systems to setting up automatic refunds.
What the wait means for your claims
Until the new rules take effect, the current rules still apply in full, including to this summer's strikes, storms and staffing shortages. A flight that lands 3 hours late today is claimable today, and under your country's current time limits, not the incoming 9-month deadline.
What to do if your flight is disrupted this summer
Keep your boarding pass, note the delay and the reason the airline gives for it, and keep receipts for any money you spend while you wait. Ask the airline to confirm the cause of the disruption in writing, because that one detail often decides a contested claim. If the airline blames extraordinary circumstances, remember that it has to prove them, not you. And if your flight is cancelled less than 14 days before departure, what airlines owe you when they cancel covers rerouting and refunds as well as compensation. Those rights have just survived their biggest test in 20 years.
Claim with AirAdvisor and get up to €600 compensationFind out how much you’re owed today.Check Your Flight
Author:
Joanna Teljeur
Job/Position: Senior Editor & Content Lead
Joanna Teljeur is a senior editor and writer with 15+ years of experience in editorial leadership, journalism, and content development, specialising in consumer rights, aviation law, and public-interest reporting. Her work focuses on transforming complex regulatory and legal topics into clear, accurate, and accessible content for international audiences.
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