Austrian Airlines flight delay and cancellation compensation

Austrian Airlines flight delay and cancellation claims pay €250 to €600 per passenger under EU261, or £220 to £520 under UK261. You qualify if you land three or more hours late at your final destination, if Austrian cancels with under 14 days' notice, or if it denies you boarding. A missed Vienna connection on one booking can count.

Does EU261 cover an Austrian Airlines flight delay via Vienna?

Austrian Airlines is Austria's flag carrier, hubbed at Vienna and part of the Lufthansa Group. It holds an Austrian operating licence, which makes it an EU carrier, so EU261 reaches both directions:

• Departures from any EU/EEA airport — covered whoever operates the flight
• Arrivals into the EU/EEA from a third country — covered because Austrian is an EU airline, which brings its long-haul inbound flights inside the regulation
• UK routes — UK261 applies to departures from the UK and to arrivals into the UK on Austrian

Vienna is a compact connecting hub. On one booking the delay is measured at the end of the journey, and your rights attach to the operating carrier that flew the aircraft.

How much compensation does Austrian Airlines owe?

Compensation is due when you arrive at your final destination three or more hours late, when a flight is cancelled with less than 14 days' notice, or when you are denied boarding on an oversold flight after checking in on time.

• EUR 250 — routes of 1,500 km or less, such as Vienna to Munich
• EUR 400 — intra-EU routes over 1,500 km and other routes of 1,500 to 3,500 km
• EUR 600 — routes over 3,500 km, covering the intercontinental network from Vienna

Article 7(2) allows the top band to be halved where a re-routed long-haul flight arrives under four hours late. UK261 uses GBP 220 / GBP 350 / GBP 520. The amount is fixed by distance, not the fare, and each passenger on the booking claims separately.

When Austrian Airlines doesn't have to pay

No compensation is due where the airline proves extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even with all reasonable measures — severe weather, air-traffic-control restrictions, airport closures, security incidents or bird strikes.

The burden of proof is on the airline, and a generic reference to "operational disruption" is not evidence of anything. A strike by Austrian's own pilots or cabin crew is generally treated as inherent in running an airline and does not defeat a claim, whereas strikes by air-traffic controllers or third-party airport staff usually count as extraordinary. Routine technical faults and crew shortages generally remain the airline's responsibility.

How do you claim from Austrian, and who can you escalate to?

Keep the booking reference, boarding passes, the disruption notice, and receipts for anything you paid for yourself. Note the actual arrival time at your final destination.

Response times vary and lengthen after storms, strikes and system outages. If a claim is refused without a substantiated reason, it can be escalated to Austria's conciliation body for passenger rights, to the enforcement body of the departure state elsewhere in the EU, or taken to court within the local limitation period.

What it costs

The eligibility check is free. If we recover your compensation we charge a fixed EUR 39 success fee — the same whether you're owed EUR 250 or EUR 600 — and the airline's payment goes to you. No win, no fee.

How to claim Austrian Airlines compensation

Start with the flight itself. Our free flight check reads the recorded times for your Austrian Airlines flight and tells you which band it falls in, in about two minutes.

For the law behind the figure, the flight delay compensation guide covers arrival delays and the cancellation compensation guide covers a flight that never operated. If Austrian Airlines has already refused you, the case law summary sets out what the courts have said about the usual excuses.