Aer Lingus flight delay compensation

Aer Lingus owes €250, €400 or €600 per passenger for an arrival three or more hours late, a short-notice cancellation, or denied boarding. Ireland's limitation period is six years, the most generous in the EU, so an older claim may still be alive.

What Aer Lingus owes, by distance

When it applies: Arrival 3+ hours late, cancellation notified less than 14 days ahead, or denied boarding. The figures come from EU Regulation 261/2004 and are per passenger, including children on their own ticket.

How to claim, in four steps

1. Work out what Aer Lingus owes. Enter the route, the date and how late you arrived. A flight from Dublin is often covered by two statutes at once, and the calculator shows which of them pays more.
2. Write the demand. The letter is dated, cites EU Regulation 261/2004 by article, and is addressed to Aer Lingus Limited. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
3. Send it to Aer Lingus. Use “Flight disruption compensation form” below, and keep a copy of what you submitted. A claim that exists only in a phone call cannot be proved afterwards.
4. Escalate to Ireland's Commission for Aviation Regulation. If Aer Lingus refuses or says nothing, the calculator writes the chaser and then the escalation letter, naming that regulator and citing the article the airline ignored.

Where to send it — Aer Lingus's own claim pages

• Flight disruption compensation form
• Flight disruption expenses claim form
• EU Regulation 261/2004 — Aer Lingus

Aer Lingus separates the two claims: compensation on one form, out-of-pocket expenses (hotel, meals, transport) on another. Submit both — filing only the first leaves the money you actually spent unclaimed.

The refusals Aer Lingus sends, and what answers them

Each of these has a settled answer in case law — the EU261 page sets out the judgments, names the cases, and quotes what the airline has to prove instead.

Other things that go wrong on an Aer Lingus flight

• When the airline blames a technical fault — when Aer Lingus blames a technical fault
• Airline strike compensation — when Aer Lingus cancels because of a strike
• “Extraordinary circumstances” — what actually counts — when Aer Lingus calls it weather or “extraordinary”
• Your flight was cancelled — when Aer Lingus cancels your flight outright
• Should you use a claim company? — when Aer Lingus ignores you — and why you still do not need a claim company
• You missed your connection — a missed connection on an Aer Lingus itinerary
• Denied boarding and overbooking — being bumped from an overbooked flight by Aer Lingus
• They moved you to a lower class — being moved to a lower class by Aer Lingus
• Your bag did not arrive — a bag Aer Lingus delayed or lost
• Stuck at the airport: what the airline owes you now — meals and a hotel while Aer Lingus leaves you waiting

Questions

Open the calculator with Aer Lingus selected →

Claiming from Aer Lingus in practice

Which band your route falls into, from DUB

Distance decides the amount, and it is measured as the great-circle distance between the two airports — not the miles flown. These are real distances from Aer Lingus's main base, so you can see where the thresholds sit before you measure your own route.

If Aer Lingus refuses or says nothing

The regulator for Aer Lingus is Ireland's Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR) (aviationreg.ie). Take the claim there once the airline has had its chance to answer and has either refused or gone silent — bring the dated letter, the airline's reply, and your booking reference. Stage 3 of the calculator writes the escalation letter that names this body.

How long you have: Six years in Ireland — the longest window in the EU, so an older Aer Lingus claim may still be alive.

Other carriers: Ryanair · Wizz Air · Lufthansa · Air France · KLM · Iberia