The 2026 EU261 reform: what changes and when

Regulation 261/2004 went unamended for more than two decades, not for want of trying. The Commission proposed a revision in 2013 and it sat unresolved for thirteen years. In summer 2026 that changed. This guide sets out what was agreed, which of the passenger-facing numbers survived intact, what genuinely changes, when any of it takes effect, and what it means for passengers claiming under UK261 rather than the EU regime.

How it was agreed

The Council and the Parliament reached a provisional agreement on 15 June 2026. The Parliament approved the text on 7 July and the Council gave final clearance on 13 July, which is why the reform is generally dated to July 2026. The Commission's statement welcoming the agreement is on the Mobility and Transport site, and the Council's final clearance is recorded by the Council of the EU.

What did not change

This is the headline, and it is the opposite of what much of the coverage over the last few years led passengers to expect. Airlines lobbied hard for the compensation trigger to be raised, at various points to five hours and beyond. It was not raised.

• The three-hour trigger stands. Compensation is still due on a cancellation or a delay of three hours or more.
• The amounts stand. €250 for flights under 1,500 km, €400 between 1,500 and 3,500 km, and €600 above 3,500 km.
• The basic architecture stands. Compensation, the refund-or-rerouting choice and the duty of care remain three distinct rights.

For anyone assessing a claim today, that is the practical point. The rules you would use are the rules that will still be used, so nothing about the reform is a reason to wait.

What does change

Proactive information and claim handling

The most consequential change for ordinary passengers is procedural. Airlines will have to inform passengers of their rights and of the procedure for claiming compensation proactively, within 96 hours of the disruption, rather than leaving passengers to discover the entitlement themselves. The handling of compensation requests is also streamlined. A large share of unclaimed compensation today is unclaimed simply because the passenger never knew, which this is designed to address.

A list of extraordinary circumstances

Extraordinary circumstances have been set out in a list, and the rules on how the defence is applied have been refined, with the aim of greater clarity and predictability. Today the boundary is drawn almost entirely by case law - Wallentin-Hermann, Krusemann, Airhelp v SAS and, in the UK, Lipton v BA CityFlyer - which is workable but requires passengers to argue with citations, as described in extraordinary circumstances explained. A written list should reduce the room for a one-line refusal.

No-show policies banned

Airlines will no longer be able to cancel the rest of an itinerary because a passenger did not take the outbound leg. The practice of voiding a return flight for a no-show on the outbound has long been one of the most resented parts of airline conditions of carriage.

Fare and baggage transparency

The agreement strengthens the transparency and comparability of air fares, including for hand baggage charges, so that the advertised price relates more closely to what a passenger actually pays. It also introduces an EU Passenger Rights label that EU airlines may display to signal the rights that apply.

Families and passengers with reduced mobility

Rights for passengers with reduced mobility and for families travelling together are improved, an area where the 2004 text was thin and where practice varied widely between carriers.

When it takes effect

Not yet, and not soon. The Commission has said that following adoption and publication in the Official Journal, the revised rules apply after 12 months. That points to the new regime beginning to apply during 2027, with the precise date depending on when publication happens.

Until then the existing regulation applies without modification. A flight disrupted this month is assessed under the current text, using the current thresholds, and will be for the remainder of the transition, so the compensation checker continues to apply the rules as they stand. The Parliament's own account of what it approved is in its press release of 7 July 2026.

What it means for UK passengers

UK261 is domestic law and is not amended by an EU instrument, so the reform does not change anything for a flight covered by the UK regime. The sterling amounts of £220, £350 and £520 continue, along with the current notice bands and the current approach to extraordinary circumstances.

The interesting consequence is divergence. Until now the two regimes have been near-identical twins, which made the overlap on UK to EU routes largely academic - you picked a currency and moved on. Once the EU version acquires a statutory list of extraordinary circumstances, a 96-hour information duty and a ban on no-show cancellations, the choice of regime on an overlapping route becomes a choice between two genuinely different procedures. How that overlap works, and which regime covers a given flight, is set out in UK261 vs EU261.

Whether the UK follows is a matter for the government and Parliament rather than for the CAA, and no equivalent UK legislation has been made. It is worth watching, but it is not something to plan a claim around.

What to do in the meantime

Nothing about the reform is a reason to delay a claim, and one thing about it is a reason not to. Limitation periods keep running regardless of legislative change, at six years in England and Wales and five in Scotland, and there is no mechanism that would apply the new rules retrospectively to a flight disrupted before they take effect. Claim under the rules that applied on the day of your flight, using the process in claiming it yourself, for free, and escalate through ADR or the CAA if the airline refuses. When the final text is published in the Official Journal, the detail on this site will be updated to match it.