Cancelled flight compensation in the UK

Three things happen at once

Article 5(1) of the UK regulation bundles three separate entitlements into a cancellation, and they are not alternatives:

• • A choice of remedy. A refund of the unused parts of the ticket, or re-routing to your destination — at the earliest opportunity, or on a later date that suits you.
• • Care while you wait. Food and drink, a way to communicate, and accommodation with transport if the replacement is the next day.
• • Possibly compensation. Only where the notice and cause tests below are met.

The choice is yours, not the airline's, and it is a choice: the CAA is clear that once you take one of the options you give up the others. If you accept a refund because the desk offered it first, you have also accepted that they are no longer responsible for getting you there.

The fourteen-day line

Article 5(1)(c) removes the compensation right where the airline told you at least two weeks before departure. That is the first question to answer, and Article 5(4) puts the burden of proving whether and when you were told on the airline — not on you to prove you were not.

Inside two weeks it turns on the replacement flight. Between fourteen and seven days out, you keep the compensation right unless the re-routing had you departing no more than two hours early and landing under four hours late. Inside seven days, the margins tighten to one hour early and two hours late.

What the amounts look like

These are the rows the CAA publishes for cancellations notified inside the notice windows. The halved figures are Article 7(2) — the reduction the airline may apply when re-routing keeps the final arrival close enough to the original.

• Under 1,500 km
  Arrives two or more hours late — £220
  Arrives less than two hours late — £110
• 1,500 – 3,500 km
  Arrives three or more hours late — £350
  Arrives less than three hours late — £175
• Over 3,500 km
  Arrives four or more hours late — £520
  Arrives less than four hours late — £260

The CAA also spells out a case where nothing is payable at all: where the replacement leaves up to two hours before, or any time after, the original departure and lands under four hours late. And a case where the full amount applies regardless of departure timing: where the replacement lands more than four hours late.

UK261 sets its own figures in sterling, so UK sterling amounts are set separately from the euro bands and the two regimes are not interchangeable. Clairo's checker currently shows euro estimates only — check current UK CAA guidance for the sterling figures that apply.

Clairo caps its estimate at €400 when both ends of the route are EU/EEA/UK airports, mirroring the intra-Community cap in Article 7(1)(b); it only estimates €600 where one end lies outside that area. Long UK–EU routes sit at the edge of that cap, so treat the figure as an estimate and check the position for your route.

And then the cause

Article 5(3) is the escape hatch: no compensation where the airline proves the cancellation came from extraordinary circumstances it could not have avoided even taking all reasonable measures. The CAA's list of what is likely to count runs to weather incompatible with safe operation, strikes unrelated to the airline, terrorism or sabotage, security risks, political or civil unrest, and hidden manufacturing defects.

Cancellations attract a particular kind of vague refusal — “operational reasons”, which is not a category in the regulation or on the CAA's list. Ask what the event was. The CAA's position is that where an airline relies on the exception it needs to set out clearly why. Our guide to extraordinary circumstances goes through the case law in more detail.

Note the split: the exception only removes compensation. Your refund-or-re-routing choice and your right to care survive it, however extraordinary the cause was.

If they cancelled and you rebooked yourself

This is where cancellations get expensive and where the paperwork matters most. If the airline could not re-route you and you bought your own replacement, keep every receipt and put the costs in as a reimbursement claim alongside — not instead of — the compensation claim. The CAA treats expenses and compensation as separate submissions, sometimes on separate forms, and a single email covering both is easy for a claims desk to half-answer.

If the airline says no, or eight weeks go by without a final response, the escalation route is the same as for delays: the airline's approved dispute-resolution scheme, or the CAA's own complaints team where it belongs to none. Check the deadlines before you let it drift.

What the checker can tell you

Clairo's checker quotes euro estimates and applies an intra-Community-style cap that treats UK airports as inside that area. The UK text of Article 7(1) does not use that wording, so on a long UK–EU route the estimate and the legislation can point at different bands. Treat the checker as a screening step, read the article for yourself, and check the sterling figure the CAA publishes for your route.

It screens route and delay, so on a cancellation it is the arrival-delay half of the picture: it cannot see how much notice you were given. Read the UK261 guide for the notice rules in the legislation, and the delay walkthrough if the flight eventually went.

Primary sources

• Your rights when a flight is cancelledUK Civil Aviation Authority

  The notice-period tables, the reduced amounts, and the choice between a refund and re-routing.

• UK261 Article 5 — cancellationlegislation.gov.uk

  The notice periods and re-routing timings that decide whether a cancelled flight carries compensation.

• UK261 Article 7 — right to compensationlegislation.gov.uk

  The sterling bands and the 50% reduction where re-routing limits the delay.

• Am I entitled to compensation?UK Civil Aviation Authority

  How the regulator frames extraordinary circumstances, including the cases it points to on technical faults.

• Claiming for costs and compensationUK Civil Aviation Authority

  How to put a claim to an airline, and the note that some airlines require the passenger to come to them first.