The European Court of Justice has ruled that passengers whose flight is cancelled for more than affacted by delayed flights can receive between €250 and €600, an amount they would normally receive for cancelled flight.

Passengers whose flight is delayed shouldn’t be treated any differently when they reach their final destination three hours or more after the scheduled arrival time.

Every airline operating within the EU now has to pay each and every passenger for delays longer than 3 hours. However, they can refuse to pay compensation if the delay was caused by “extraordinary circumstances” which they can’t control.  These circumstances do not include technical issues. Furthermore, passengers can receive a refund even if they’re re-booked on another flight, provided the new flight arrives more than 3 hours of the original flight.

Before this ruling came into effect, passengers delayed for more than 5 hours or whose flight was cancelled completely were entitled to a refund. Passengers experiencing delays of less than 5 hours were entitled to a meal, hotel room if needed and a phone call. Now, the line is thinner between cancelled and delayed flights in terms of benefits.

” The idea that a technical fault is within an airline’s control is absurd. If it was within an airline’s control it would have been scheduled. Judges who made this ruling are living in cloud cuckoo land. No airline would load passengers, luggage and fuel knowing that there would be a technical problem. Based on this formula airlines could find themselves having to refund far more than the cost of the original ticket,” said Paul Charles, spokesman for Virgin Atlantic.