ANSWER · UK 261 AND EC 261

I booked with one airline but flew another. Who pays compensation?

The operating carrier: the company that actually performed the flight. Art. 2(b) defines it as the carrier performing or intending to perform the flight, under its own contract with you or on behalf of another company that holds your contract. The Court confirmed in Wirth on 4 July 2018 that a company merely wet leasing out the aircraft and crew, without operational responsibility, is not it.

REVIEWED AGAINST RULE SET V6 AND THE CITED PRIMARY SOURCES · UPDATED 7 AUGUST 2026

How to work out who operated your flight

Start with who held the operational responsibility: who decided the flight would happen, held the slots and answered for it. In Wirth the booking confirmation said the flight was operated by the aircraft's owner, but the Court held the charterer that bore operational responsibility was the operating carrier: the label on the confirmation does not decide it.

Code shares and package holidays

On a code share, the marketing airline sells the seat and the operating airline flies it; Art. 2(b) points the claim at the latter. A package booked through a tour operator resolves the same way: the compensation claim runs against the airline that operated the flight, whoever sold the holiday.

Why the operating carrier matters for coverage

Scope follows it too. Art. 3(1)(b) covers a flight into the EU from a third country only where the operating carrier is a Community carrier, so on a code share the operating airline's nationality can decide whether the regulation applies at all.

THE JUDGMENTS BEHIND THIS ANSWER

Wirth, C-532/172018

SOURCES

Case C-532/17 Wirth and Others v Thomson Airways, judgment of 4 July 2018 (ECLI:EU:C:2018:527) · EUR-Lex · checked 7 August 2026
Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, Art. 2(b) · EUR-Lex · checked 7 August 2026
Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, Art. 3(1) · EUR-Lex · checked 7 August 2026