UK261 vs EU261: which regime covers your flight

Since Brexit there are two air passenger rights regimes rather than one, and they overlap awkwardly on exactly the routes British travellers use most. This guide explains where the two regimes came from, sets out the coverage test in a form you can apply to your own booking, compares the amounts side by side, and explains what to do when your flight falls under both.

Two regimes, one original text

EU Regulation 261/2004 is the original. Its full text is on EUR-Lex. When the UK left the EU, that regulation was carried across into domestic law and then amended so that its references to member states and Community carriers read as references to the UK and UK carriers. The assimilated version sits on legislation.gov.uk.

The substance is almost identical. Both give you compensation for a three-hour arrival delay, for a short-notice cancellation and for involuntary denied boarding. Both let the airline escape compensation for genuine extraordinary circumstances. Both impose the same duty of care. The two meaningful differences are the currency and one drafting quirk about long intra-EU flights.

The coverage test

Work through this in order. You need three facts: where the flight departed, where it landed, and where the operating airline is licensed.

UK261 covers your flight if any of these is true.

• It departed from a UK airport, whoever the airline was.
• It arrived at a UK airport on a UK or EU airline.
• It arrived at an EU airport on a UK airline.

EU261 covers your flight if either of these is true.

• It departed from an EU airport, whoever the airline was.
• It arrived at an EU airport on an EU airline.

The pattern is the same in both. A departure from the territory is always covered whoever the carrier is. An arrival is only covered if the airline itself belongs to the regime. One consequence catches people out: a long-haul flight leaving the UK on any airline is covered, so Heathrow to Los Angeles on a US carrier is a UK261 flight, while the same aircraft on the return leg is not. The outbound is claimable and the inbound is not.

The amounts

The distance is the great circle distance of the whole journey to your final destination, not the leg that went wrong. The half rate is the Article 7(2) reduction, and it works differently for delays and for cancellations. On a pure delay it only ever applies to flights over 3,500 km arriving between three and four hours late, which is how a £520 claim becomes a £260 one. On a cancellation or a denied boarding it applies whenever the rerouting you were offered got you there within two, three or four hours of the original arrival, by band. The compensation checker applies the reduction for you rather than leaving you to work out which version of the rule you are in.

The intra-EU quirk

Article 7(1)(b) of the EU regulation pays €400 for all intra-Community flights of more than 1,500 km, which means a long flight that starts and ends inside the EU is capped at €400 even when it exceeds 3,500 km. The routes affected are the long ones between the European mainland and the EU's outermost regions, such as Paris to Guadeloupe or Reunion. UK261 has no equivalent cap - its bands are pure distance, so the £520 figure applies above 3,500 km whatever the geography.

When both regimes apply

Overlap happens on routes where one regime catches the departure and the other catches the arrival plus the carrier. The clearest case is an EU departure landing in the UK on a UK or EU airline. Madrid to London on a British carrier is covered by EU261 because it left an EU airport, and by UK261 because it arrived in the UK on a UK airline. A flight between two EU airports operated by a UK carrier is another, covered by EU261 on departure and by UK261 because a UK airline flew into the EU.

You still have one claim. The loss is the same loss, and the regulations are two versions of the same right rather than two separate rights that stack. In practice you choose, and the sensible way to choose is to compare the two figures at the current exchange rate and then think about who would hear the dispute if the airline says no. A UK-based claim is easier to escalate through AviationADR, CEDR or the county court, which for most UK residents outweighs a small currency difference.

A worked example

A couple fly Amsterdam to Manchester on a UK airline, roughly 500 km, and arrive four hours and ten minutes late because of a technical fault. Both regimes cover the flight. Under UK261 the short-haul band pays £220 each, so £440. Under EU261 it is €250 each, so €500. The half rate does not apply, because on a delay it only bites above 3,500 km. They claim under UK261, in sterling, and if the airline refuses they can take it to its UK ADR body without any cross-border complication.

Change one fact and the answer changes. Flown by a carrier licensed outside both the UK and the EU, only EU261 would apply, because the departure was from an EU airport and the arrival in the UK was not on a UK or EU airline.

When neither applies

Neither regime reaches a flight that both departs from outside the UK and EU and is operated by a carrier from outside both. Bangkok to Heathrow on a Thai carrier, New York to Dublin on a US carrier, Dubai to Manchester on a Gulf carrier - all outside. You may still have rights under the airline's conditions of carriage, under the law of the departure country, or under the Montreal Convention for provable consequential losses, but the fixed European compensation is not available.

One caution before you rule yourself out. Coverage follows the operating carrier, not the airline whose code is on your ticket. A codeshare sold by a European airline but flown by a partner from outside Europe is judged on the partner. Check the small print on the boarding pass that says which carrier actually operated the flight, and see proving your claim for what else to keep. Once you know the regime, the process is the same either way and is set out in claiming it yourself, for free.

One last note on the future. The EU agreed a reform of its regulation in July 2026 which keeps the three-hour trigger and the €250, €400 and €600 amounts but changes a good deal of the process around them, and it starts to apply around a year after publication. UK261 is not automatically affected, so the two regimes may drift apart. That is covered in the 2026 EU261 reform.