Iberia Express flight delay and cancellation compensation

Iberia Express flight delay and cancellation: your rights

Iberia Express is Iberia's short-haul subsidiary, flying from Madrid on a Spanish operating licence. It is an EU carrier, which gives EU261 its full reach in both directions, and much of what it flies is feeder traffic into the Madrid hub.

• Departing any EU or EEA airport — covered.
• Arriving into the EU or EEA from outside it — covered, because the licence is Spanish.
• Departing or arriving in the UK — UK261 applies, in sterling.

Why the connection is the claim

Because Iberia Express exists largely to fill Iberia's long-haul flights out of Madrid, its most valuable claims are usually not about the short sector at all. Where the sectors sit on one booking, the delay is measured at your final destination — so a ninety-minute delay into Madrid that costs you a Latin America connection can produce a €600 claim rather than nothing.

The reverse is also true and catches people out: separate tickets are two journeys, and the connection is not protected. Our missed connection guide covers the single-booking case.

What an Iberia Express claim is worth

The band follows the whole journey on a single booking, not the leg that went wrong:

• €250 up to 1,500 km, which is most of the domestic and near-European network
• €400 from 1,500 to 3,500 km
• €600 beyond 3,500 km, reached when a delayed feeder costs a long-haul connection

It is owed per passenger. The triggers are the usual three: a three-hour arrival delay, a cancellation with under fourteen days' notice, or denied boarding.

Who to claim from

The operating carrier — Iberia Express for the sector it flew, even when the ticket was sold under an Iberia code. Writing to the wrong company in the group is the most common way to lose a month on a claim that was always going to be paid, so check the operator on your booking before you send anything.

How to claim Iberia Express flight delay compensation

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

A Iberia Express compensation claim turns on the arrival time and on the reason the airline gives, so read both before you write. The flight delay compensation guide sets out the bands, and the cancellation compensation guide covers Iberia Express cancellation compensation for a flight that never operated. If the airline refuses, the case law summary sets out what the courts have accepted as an excuse and what they have thrown out.