Cancelled flights: the two rights guide

What legally counts as a cancellation?

Art. 2(l) defines cancellation as the non operation of a flight that was previously planned with at least one seat reserved. The Court has kept airlines from narrowing it: a flight that takes off and is forced back to its departure airport, with passengers moved to other flights, is a cancellation (Sousa Rodríguez, 2011). A flight brought forward by more than one hour is a cancellation (Airhelp v Laudamotion, 2021). A flight pushed back by under three hours, with nothing else changed, is not; it is analysed as a delay (Corendon, 2021).

The label the airline uses is irrelevant. What matters is whether you were moved to a flight with different original planning, or your flight simply ran late.

Right one: your money back or your journey completed

Art. 8(1) puts the choice with you, not the airline. The three options: reimbursement within seven days of the full ticket price for the parts of the journey not made (plus the parts already made, where the trip no longer serves its purpose, with a return flight to your starting point); rerouting to the final destination under comparable conditions at the earliest opportunity; or rerouting at a later date that suits you, subject to seats.

The earliest opportunity has teeth. In the 2020 TAP judgment the Court held that offering the next seat in the airline's own schedule is not automatically enough: the carrier must show it considered all resources available, including seats on other airlines, unless that would be an intolerable sacrifice for its business, which the airline has to evidence.

Right two: when is compensation also due?

Art. 5(1)(c) removes compensation only in three tightly drawn situations, built around when you were personally told:

Who has to prove you were told, and when?

The airline, under Art. 5(4). And telling someone else is not telling you: in Krijgsman (2017) the carrier informed the booking agent five weeks ahead, the agent passed it on ten days before departure, and the airline was held liable for the full 600 euro. In Airhelp v Laudamotion (2021) notice sent to an email address generated by a booking platform did not count, because the passengers had not authorised the platform to receive it.

Three worked examples

• Told 20 days ahead, Edinburgh to Dublin: no compensation, whatever the reason. The Art. 8 choice still applies in full, including the refund on the statutory 7 day deadline.
• Told 10 days ahead, London Gatwick to Málaga-Costa del Sol (1,645 km, 1,500 to 3,500 km band), replacement arrives 5 hours late: outside the 4 hour margin, so £350 per passenger remains due unless the airline proves an extraordinary circumstance.
• Cancelled at the gate, London Heathrow to John F. Kennedy, rebooked to arrive 3 hours 30 minutes late: compensation is due, but within the 4 hour long haul margin of Art. 7(2) the airline may halve it, £260 instead of £520.

The extraordinary circumstances defence on cancellations

Art. 5(3) works exactly as it does for delays: the airline must prove a circumstance not inherent in running an airline, outside its actual control, and a reasonable response. The cancellation cases have their own line of authority: a captain's illness (Lipton, UK Supreme Court 2024) and the sudden death of a co-pilot hours before departure (TAP, 2023) are staffing risks the airline carries; airspace closures and airport system failures generally are not.

Even a proven defence removes only the compensation. The refund or rerouting choice and the care duties stand untouched, which McDonagh confirmed at the extreme: a week stranded under a volcanic ash cloud left the care duty fully intact.

Care while it gets sorted

From the moment of the cancellation you hold Art. 9 rights while you wait for your chosen option: meals and refreshments in reasonable relation to the wait, two communications, and hotel plus transfers where a night intervenes. If you choose rerouting at a later date of your own convenience, the care duty ends with that choice.

Care is also the duty most often left unperformed in a mass cancellation, and the remedy is practical: pay modestly, keep the receipts, and add the reimbursement to the claim. The refund itself, when chosen, must arrive within seven days and in money, on the Art. 7(3) payment means.

Vouchers, part payments and other softeners

Art. 7(3) requires compensation to be paid in money: cash, electronic transfer, bank order or cheque. Travel vouchers or other services require your signed agreement, so a voucher email is an offer you can decline, and declining it costs the claim nothing. Part payments work the same way: accepting the refund of the unused ticket under Art. 8 neither waives nor reduces the Art. 7 claim, because the two rights answer different losses.

The one lawful discount is the Art. 7(2) reduction described above, and it has conditions the airline must meet, not assert: a re-routing offer, actually taken, arriving inside the timing window for the band.

Return legs, packages and who you actually claim from

Each direction of a return booking is its own flight with its own coverage test: the outbound from the UK or EU is covered by departure, the inbound from a third country only where the operating carrier is a UK or EU airline. On package holidays the compensation claim runs against the operating airline, not the tour operator, and it sits alongside, not inside, any package refund.

The operating carrier is whoever bore operational responsibility for the flight (Wirth, 2018), which on code shares is often not the brand that sold the seat. The booking confirmation's operated by line is the starting point, and the claim letter should name that carrier.

A decision flow for any cancelled flight

• 1. Was it actually a cancellation? Check against Art. 2(l) and the schedule change rules: moved earlier by over an hour counts, pushed back under three hours does not.
• 2. When were you personally told? 14 days or more: no compensation, but the full Art. 8 choice. Less: go to step 3.
• 3. Did the replacement flight meet both timing margins for the notice window? If it missed either, compensation stays live.
• 4. What cause has the airline proved, with evidence, about your flight? Test it against the strike, staffing and technical fault case law.
• 5. Whatever steps 2 to 4 say, collect the Art. 8 right and keep care receipts. Neither depends on the cause.

Common airline responses, answered

• We rebooked you, so the matter is closed: rebooking answers Art. 8. Compensation under Art. 7 turns on the notice windows and the cause, separately.
• You accepted the refund: the refund covers the unused ticket. Nothing in the regulation treats it as settlement of the compensation claim.
• Here is a voucher for the amount: Art. 7(3) requires money unless you sign an agreement to take vouchers. Declining costs nothing.
• We told your travel agent in good time: Krijgsman answers this directly. The airline must prove you were informed, and when.
• It was extraordinary circumstances: name the circumstance, and prove the response. The phrase alone discharges no burden.

Deadlines and where claims are decided

Limitation follows national law (Cuadrench Moré, 2012): 6 years in England and Wales, 1 to 10 years across the forums in our published map. Contested claims are decided by courts and approved dispute schemes; every country in scope also designates an Art. 16 enforcement body, whose contact details the airline itself must give you in writing under Art. 14(2).

One habit protects every route: keep the cancellation notice itself. The date you were informed decides the windows, the airline bears the burden of proving it (Art. 5(4)), and an inbox timestamp is the cleanest evidence either side will ever produce.