Claiming for a flight from the United Kingdom

Who enforces this

Every state bound by the Regulation must designate a body to enforce it. In the United Kingdom that is the Civil Aviation Authority. Complaining to them costs nothing, and airlines tend to answer a regulator faster than they answer a passenger.

The deadline

A claim for a flight departing the United Kingdom must be brought within 6 years of the flight. This comes from national law rather than from the Regulation itself, which is why it differs so widely across Europe: one year in Belgium and Poland, six in England and Wales. The approved 2026 reform replaces this patchwork with a single EU-wide window, expected to apply from 2027.

Unless you flew from Scotland. Six years is the Limitation Act 1980, which runs in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland matches it. Scots law prescribes in five, under the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973. So a flight from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness or any other Scottish airport has a year less than one from Manchester, and the check on this site applies the right one automatically.

What to do first

Write to the airline before you write to anyone else. The enforcement body will expect to see that you gave the airline a chance to answer, and most claims are settled at that stage. Ask them to state the cause of the disruption in writing: that single question decides whether they owe you anything.

Check what your flight is worth and we will write the letter for you.