How far can I go back for a Flight Compensation Claim?

If you are in the UK, or anywhere within the European Union you can Claim Back Compensation for any flight that has been delayed or cancelled. The ruling that outlines these rights for any Flight Compensation Claim is the European Regulation (EC) 261/2004 that applies to all flights within the EU/EEA, run by any EU/EEA or Swiss airline. For example, any direct flight from the UK will be covered along with any flight into the UK as long as it is run by a European airline. The flight delay has to be at least three hours in order to Claim Back Compensation.

Initially, the European Regulation stated that you could claim compensation for any flight delay stretching back as far as February 2005, which was the cut-off point. But on the 23rd October 2012 the European Courts of Justice passed a judgement that tightened the regulations meaning that in England, Wales and Northern Ireland claims can only date back six years, making it harder to claim compensation against flights before 2007. In Scotland, you can only claim back 5 years due to the statue of limitations. Before these guidelines were enforced, airlines would simply ignore claims made against them and would simply not compensate their passengers. Even now with these guidelines in place airlines only pay approximately 5% of claims originally made to them (without court action). It is only when the claims reach the court stage, when further pressure is added, that the airlines begin to change their stance and begin to pay back compensation. This goes to show how stubborn airlines can be and how they put up a fight for 95% of cases. If you have had a Flight Delayed or cancelled then you are eligible to claim money back. It doesn’t matter if the flight was yesterday, last year or even five years ago you still have a fighting chance to claim EU Flight Delay Compensation. Unfortunately, if you had a flight delay between 2005 and 2006 or before, then there is nothing more you can do as the courts will only hear cases dating back six years (five in Scotland).

This new ruling applies to England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland but every country has its own statute of limitation period, dependent on the way their juridical process works. This statute of limitation period restricts how far back claims can be made. Each claim is only made against the country in which the delay occurred. Therefore if the Flight Delay occurred when arriving in Spain, then the claim is put forward to the Spanish governing bodies. In Spain you can claim back up to 10 years, compared to only 6 years in England. So keep this in mind when making a Flight Compensation Claim as you may still be entitled to EU Flight Compensation.

Stephen Godden, am the author of this article for Flight Delay Refunds and Blueway Limited is the main resources of Flight Delay Refunds company provide a full service of delayed or cancelled flights.