Compensation for flight delays of at least three hours will remain in place, airline ticket prices will become more transparent, the “no-show” rule will be abolished and children will be seated next to accompanying adults free of charge. These are among the measures adopted by the European Union institutions to strengthen the rights of air passengers.
Work on the revised legislation began more than a decade ago and was accompanied by significant disagreement between the EU institutions and member states.
“One of the greatest successes is that the European Parliament stood firmly on the side of passengers from beginning to end. The fact that it remained uncertain until the final stage whether a compromise with the Council could be achieved shows just how intense the emotions and tensions were,” Elżbieta Łukacijewska, a Polish Member of the European Parliament from Civic Coalition and the European People’s Party, told the Newseria news agency.
On 7 July 2026, Members of the European Parliament approved changes to the rules governing air passenger rights. The legislation was subsequently approved by the Council of the European Union on Monday, 13 July.
For many years, EU member states were unable to agree on a common position. A Council position was finally reached in 2025, but substantial differences between the EU institutions meant that a compromise was not achieved until June 2026.
National governments had previously proposed increasing the minimum delay required for compensation to four hours on shorter routes and six hours on longer journeys.
“We managed to defend the three-hour delay threshold and the corresponding compensation linked to the distance travelled,” Łukacijewska says.
“We fought for the compensation amounts to be adjusted for inflation because they had not been changed for many years. We were unable to reach an agreement on that issue, so our priority became preventing the Council’s proposal to introduce a single compensation rate for all journey lengths.”
Compensation for delays of more than three hours remains in place
Under the revised rules, passengers will continue to be entitled to compensation when their flight arrives more than three hours late.
Compensation will also remain available when a flight is cancelled less than 14 days before departure or when a passenger is denied boarding.
The compensation amounts for delayed or cancelled flights will not change. They will continue to depend on the distance of the journey:
- €250 for flights of up to 1,500 kilometres;
- €400 for intra-EU flights of more than 1,500 kilometres and for other flights of between 1,500 and 3,500 kilometres;
- €600 for all other longer journeys.
“If we consider the value of €250 or €400 compared with the period when these compensation limits were first introduced, their purchasing power is now very different,” Łukacijewska says.
“However, under the new rules, passengers will be able to apply for compensation themselves, meaning the entire amount will remain in their pockets.”
The European Parliament pressed for a simplified compensation process to make this possible.
Passengers whose journeys are disrupted will receive clear instructions from the airline on how to submit a compensation claim within four days of completing their journey.
They will not be required to create a user account or download a dedicated application.
Passengers will have nine months to submit a compensation claim. Airlines will then have 30 days to pay the compensation, invoke extraordinary circumstances or explain why compensation has been refused. They will also be required to inform passengers about the available complaints procedure.
“Passengers will no longer need to turn to an organisation or intermediary to pursue compensation on their behalf and then pay for that service,” the MEP says.
“Overall, this is clearly beneficial for passengers. That does not mean we will not return to the issue of adjusting the compensation amounts in the future. We did not want to place excessive pressure on member-state governments because we were concerned that negotiating an additional €50, for example, might eventually be reflected in higher ticket prices.”
Airlines must continue providing care during long delays
Air carriers will continue to be required to provide appropriate assistance to passengers affected by delays.
This includes providing meals after three hours of waiting and accommodation where a major delay requires an overnight stay.
The revised legislation also strengthens the protection offered to passengers with specific needs.
Children must be seated next to accompanying adults free of charge
Families travelling with children must not be separated during seat allocation.
Airlines will be required to seat an accompanying adult next to a child under the age of 14 without charging an additional fee.
The revised rules also introduce stronger safeguards for people with disabilities, passengers with reduced mobility, pregnant travellers and unaccompanied minors.
“Another success concerns the ‘no-show’ rule,” Łukacijewska says.
“Until now, when a passenger failed to use one section of a journey, for example the outbound part of a return ticket, an airline could automatically cancel the return flight or the next segment of the itinerary. Airlines will no longer be allowed to do this.”
“Passengers will keep the value of the ticket because they will still be able to take the return flight or continue the next stage of their journey.”
She adds that the rules also introduce simpler and stronger protection for passengers with disabilities and adults travelling with children.
“Overbooking, where a passenger is refused boarding because the airline sold more tickets than there are seats on the aircraft, must under no circumstances affect passengers with disabilities or children.”
No fees for correcting spelling errors or printing boarding passes
Air passengers will not be charged additional fees for correcting spelling mistakes in their first or last names.
Airlines will also be prohibited from charging passengers for a printed boarding pass where the passenger has already completed check-in.
MEPs additionally secured passengers’ right to receive a digital boarding pass during check-in without having to submit a separate request, create an account or use a dedicated mobile application.
Extraordinary circumstances will be more clearly defined
The revised legislation includes an open list of situations that may qualify as extraordinary circumstances.
These include:
- natural disasters;
- war;
- severe weather conditions;
- disruptive behaviour by passengers;
- strikes by airport employees;
- strikes by air traffic controllers;
- strikes involving ground-handling staff.
Airlines are generally not required to pay compensation where delays or cancellations result from extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.
“Airlines and member states wanted to expand the list of extraordinary circumstances in which passengers would not be entitled to compensation,” Łukacijewska says.
“They wanted the illness of a crew member or a technical fault affecting the aircraft to qualify as an extraordinary circumstance. Had that proposal been accepted, practically no passenger would have received compensation.”
“We refused to accept this. The Court of Justice of the European Union has clearly established how extraordinary circumstances should be interpreted.”
Ticket prices must show the cost of hand luggage
To improve the transparency and comparability of air fares, MEPs insisted that airlines, intermediaries and flight-search websites display ticket prices that include a hand luggage option from the beginning of the booking process.
The customer must therefore be shown both the price including hand luggage and, where available, the price without it.
“This provision is particularly relevant to low-cost airlines, where luggage charges were often hidden until a later stage,” Łukacijewska explains.
“The ticket initially appeared inexpensive, but once baggage was added, the total cost could be similar to the price of a ticket on a traditional airline.”
“When purchasing a ticket, passengers must be told how much it costs with and without hand luggage. This will prevent them from being surprised by an extraordinarily high additional charge that can sometimes exceed the original ticket price several times over.”
When will the new rules apply?
The updated rules will enter into force one year and 20 days after their publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
The reforms preserve the central elements of the existing passenger compensation system while making claims easier, improving price transparency and introducing stronger protections for families, passengers with disabilities and other travellers with specific needs.
