Ryanair flight delay and cancellation compensation

Your rights on a Ryanair flight

Ryanair is a low-cost carrier licensed in Ireland, which makes it an EU carrier. That single fact decides how much of the world your rights reach.

• Departing any EU/EEA airport — EU261 applies, whoever operates the flight.
• Arriving into the EU/EEA from outside it — EU261 applies because Ryanair holds an EU operating licence.
• Departing the UK, or arriving in the UK on Ryanair — UK261, the retained British version of the same rules, applies instead.

In practice that means almost the entire Ryanair network sits inside one regime or the other, including its Morocco, Israel, Jordan and Albania routes.

Compensation is triggered by three things: arriving at your final destination three or more hours late, a cancellation announced with less than 14 days' notice, or being denied boarding on an overbooked flight when you checked in on time.

How much compensation you could receive

The amount is fixed by the distance of the route, not the price of the ticket. A EUR 19.99 seat and a fully flexible fare are worth exactly the same.

• EUR 250 — flights of 1,500 km or less (Dublin–Manchester, Milan–Palermo)
• EUR 400 — flights over 1,500 km within the EU, and any other flight between 1,500 km and 3,500 km (Dublin–Faro, London–Marrakesh)
• EUR 600 — remaining flights over 3,500 km, which Ryanair's short-haul network rarely reaches

UK261 claims use the sterling bands of GBP 220 / GBP 350 / GBP 520. Everyone on the booking with a confirmed reservation is paid separately, so a family of four multiplies the figure by four. Infants on a lap, who hold no seat, do not qualify.

When Ryanair does not have to pay

There is no compensation where the disruption was caused by extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even with all reasonable measures — severe weather, air-traffic-control restrictions, airport closures, security alerts, or a bird strike.

Two points are widely misunderstood:

• The airline carries the burden of proof. A one-line message blaming "operational reasons" or "weather" is an assertion, not evidence. If Ryanair cannot substantiate it, the defence should fail.
• A strike by the airline's own crew is generally not extraordinary, following EU case law that treats staff disputes as part of running an airline. Strikes by third parties — air-traffic controllers, airport handlers — usually are.

Routine technical faults found during ordinary maintenance are normally the airline's responsibility too, even though they are often described as unforeseeable.

How to claim from Ryanair

Keep the booking reference, your boarding pass or check-in confirmation, and any text or email announcing the delay. Ask staff, in writing, for the reason for the disruption.

Like most carriers, Ryanair wants claims submitted through its own process and may ask for identity or payment verification before releasing money. We handle the submission, the follow-up and any appeal, and we tell you plainly if we think a defence is likely to hold.

How long Ryanair takes to respond

Response times vary a great deal between airlines and between individual claims, and they usually stretch after mass-disruption events when volumes spike. An automated acknowledgement is normal; a substantive answer takes longer. If a claim stalls or is refused without a proper explanation, it can be escalated to the national enforcement body — the Irish Aviation Authority for Irish departures, the UK Civil Aviation Authority for UK ones — or pursued in court within the local time limit, which ranges from about two years to six years.

What it costs

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