Faro flight delay and cancellation compensation

What are your rights after a Faro flight delay or cancellation?

Faro serves the Algarve, and its traffic is overwhelmingly British, Irish and German holidaymakers. The season runs long here, which keeps the schedule tight for most of the year.

Portugal is in the EU, so EU261 covers every flight out of Faro. Land three or more hours late at your final destination and the airline owes a fixed sum. Faro to the UK and Ireland runs about 1,800 km, which puts it in the €400 band.

Which flights at Faro does EU261 cover?

Portugal is in the EU, so EU261 covers every departure from Faro, whoever flies it. A non-European airline leaving here is bound on the same terms as a European one.

An arrival into Faro is narrower. It is covered only when an EU or EEA airline operates the flight. A flight in from outside Europe on a non-European airline falls outside the rules, even though it lands in the EU.

The sums are fixed by distance, never by the fare:

Flight distance	Compensation per passenger	Routes from Faro
Up to 1,500 km	€250	—
1,500 to 3,500 km	€400	UK and Ireland, about 1,800 km
Over 3,500 km	€600 (€400 if the flight is within the EU)	—

A cancellation inside fourteen days pays the same, and so does denied boarding.

Which rules cover each leg of a trip between Faro and the UK?

The leg out of Faro falls under EU261, in euros. The leg out of the UK falls under UK261, in pounds.

Same trip, same airline, two frameworks. It catches people out, because a refusal on one leg says nothing about the other.

What goes wrong at Faro, and does the money still stand?

Low-cost and charter flying dominates, and it runs on tight turnarounds. A delay early in an aircraft's day often lasts to its last rotation into Faro.

Atlantic wind and summer flow limits across Iberian airspace both feature. Technical faults, crews running out of hours and commercial cancellations of thin flights are the airline's own doing, so the money still stands.

How do you claim Faro flight delay compensation?

Start with the flight itself. Our free flight check reads the recorded departure and arrival times for your flight from Faro and tells you which band it falls in.

Your Faro compensation claim turns on two things: the arrival time, and the reason the airline gives.

For a late arrival, read the flight delay compensation guide. For a flight that never flew, read the cancellation compensation guide. It covers Faro cancellation compensation too. Has the airline said no? The case law summary sets out what the courts make of the usual excuses.