Thailand
Thailand pays 2,000, 3,500 or 4,500 baht by distance, but only on an international flight and only once the delay reaches ten hours — the highest threshold of any statute here. A domestic flight gets care and the right to a refund instead of a payment.
Check your own flight against the CAAT passenger rules →Who it covers
- International flights departing Thailand, and flights to Thailand on a Thai carrier.
- A domestic Thai flight is outside the compensation bands entirely. It carries care and refund rights, not a payment.
- The bands cover long delay. Cancellation and denied boarding are handled through the care and re-routing provisions.
What it pays
| Distance or situation | Per passenger |
|---|---|
| Up to 1,500 km | ฿2,000 |
| 1,500–3,500 km | ฿3,500 |
| Over 3,500 km | ฿4,500 |
What triggers it
Delay of ten hours or more, international
Ten hours is a long way past the European three, and it is the single most important fact about this regime. Below it there is no payment — but the care obligations start far earlier.
Cancellation and denied boarding
Dealt with through re-routing, refund and assistance rather than the distance bands. The refund is of the unused portion, and re-routing is at the earliest opportunity.
Payment timing
Where compensation is due it is payable within fourteen days of the flight — a fixed deadline you can quote back.
Duty of care — separate from compensation
Food and drink appropriate to the wait, communication, and accommodation with transport where the delay runs overnight — plus the choice of re-routing or a refund. These start well before the ten-hour compensation threshold.
The refusals airlines send, and what answers them
“Ten hours were not reached”
Check how the airline is counting. The clock runs on arrival at your final destination, not on when the aircraft eventually pushed back. Ask for the scheduled and actual times in writing.
“This was a domestic flight”
Correct that no band applies — but the care and refund rights do, and those are what to claim.
“Extraordinary circumstances”
Thailand recognises causes outside the carrier's control. It does not use them to erase the assistance owed while you waited.
Enforcement
The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand takes passenger complaints and supervises the carriers it licenses. The Office of the Consumer Protection Board handles the consumer side.
How long you have
Two years in practice for a claim arising out of carriage. The fourteen-day payment deadline is separate and runs from the flight.
Primary sources
Read the law itself rather than anyone's summary of it, this one included. Every link below was checked on 12 September 2026.
By situation, rather than by statute
If you would rather start from what happened than from which law applies: my flight was cancelled · they are blaming a strike · they are blaming a technical fault · I was denied boarding · I am stuck at the airport
The other statutes
- EU261 compensation — EU261
- UK261 compensation — UK261
- Israeli Aviation Services Law — the Aviation Services Law
- US flight delay rules — US DOT rules
- Canada APPR compensation — the APPR
- Montreal Convention 1999 — the Montreal Convention
- Russia — Article 120 of the Air Code
- Türkiye — the SHY-Passenger Regulation
- India — the DGCA CAR
- Brazil — ANAC Resolution 400
- Indonesia — Ministerial Regulation PM 89
- Saudi Arabia — the GACA customer protection rules