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Austrian Airlines delay and cancellation compensation

Checked 8 min read

Two clocks run on an Austrian Airlines complaint. Vienna’s passenger agency asks only that the airline has had your letter six weeks; the CAA route wants eight. Land three hours or more behind schedule and the airline owes €250 to €600 under EU261, £220 to £520 under UK261, unless it proves extraordinary circumstances. Austria’s licence pulls both regulations onto inbound flights too. Berlin, oddly, is where a refused UK-departure claim ends up.

Illustration: travellers and aircraft at an airport, for the Austrian Airlines page

This page sets out Austrian Airlines delayed flight compensation regime by regime: the amount by distance, the two complaint clocks and where a refused claim goes.

Key facts: Austrian Airlines

Fact

Detail

Legal entity

Austrian Airlines AG; Community carrier (Austria)

EU261 compensation

€250-€600

UK261 compensation

£220-£520

Coverage

EU261 and UK261 on all departures and on arrivals into either territory

ADR scheme

Schlichtung Reise & Verkehr (Berlin), CAA foreign-ADR list

Claim form

Austrian Airlines' own claim channel

Time limit to sue

Austria 3 years from knowledge (ABGB §1489); 6 years on a UK departure, 5 in Scotland and untested

Source: EU261 art. 7(1) — eur-lex.europa.eu; UK261 art. 7(1) — legislation.gov.uk; EC active operating licence list (19/05/2026) — transport.ec.europa.eu; CAA, foreign ADR list — caa.co.uk, checked 2026-09-15.

#How much does Austrian Airlines pay under EU261 for a delay of 3 hours or more?

€250, €400 or €600 is Austrian Airlines' EU261 compensation for reaching your final destination three hours or more late, and Vienna to Bangkok shows the top band at work: it crosses 3,500 km, so a delay under four hours drops to €300 at Austrian Airlines' option, and only a delay of four hours or more guarantees the full €600.

Distance

EU261 €UK261 £

Up to 1,500 km

€250

£220

Intra-EU beyond 1,500 km

€400 flat, no reduced step

not a UK261 route

1,500-3,500 km (non-intra-EU)

€400

£350

Beyond 3,500 km

€600, cut to €300 if Austrian Airlines chooses and you land under 4 hours late

£520, or £260 for a 3-to-4-hour arrival

Distance, not the fare paid, decides the figure, measured as the great-circle line between airports; Vienna to Bangkok’s roughly 8,450 km clears the over-3,500-km band comfortably.

Article 7(2) says Austrian Airlines “may” halve a re-routed passenger’s payment — its choice, not automatic — if the new arrival lands within 2 hours late up to 1,500 km, 3 hours late on either €400 band, or 4 hours late beyond 3,500 km. A pure delay works differently: Sturgeon para 63 caps its reduction at “less than four hours”, so beyond 3,500 km, 3 hours 59 minutes late still allows €300, while exactly 4 hours 0 minutes owes the full €600 (EU261).

In Austrian Airlines (WZ) (C-826/19, 2021), the CJEU held that a diversion to another airport serving the same region is not a “cancellation”. Austrian Airlines still had to cover the transfer cost, and a long delay after the diversion still triggered compensation. Decided after 2020, this ruling is persuasive, not binding, on UK courts. Check your route on the compensation calculator, and read the EU261 hub and its delay compensation guide.

Source: EU261 art. 7(1)-(2), art. 7(4) — eur-lex.europa.eu; Sturgeon, C-402/07 and C-432/07, para 63 — eur-lex.europa.eu; UK261 arts. 6(3), 7 — legislation.gov.uk; CAA, Delays — caa.co.uk; Austrian Airlines (WZ), C-826/19 — eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-15.

#Which Austrian Airlines flights do EU261 and UK261 cover, including flights into Europe and the UK?

1 Austrian licence carries this page: the European Commission lists Austrian Airlines AG as a Community carrier, category A, with effect from 10 September 2007. EU261 then reaches its arrivals into the EU, and UK261 its arrivals into the UK, on top of every departure from either.

Which rules apply to your Austrian Airlines flight

Your route

Which rules apply

EU to anywhere

EU261 (€)

UK to anywhere

UK261 (£)

Outside the EU/UK, arriving in the EU

EU261 (€) on arrival

Outside the EU/UK, arriving in the UK

UK261 (£) on arrival

Austria’s own ministry directory lists the same company. Neither register is arranged by brand, so a licence row can show who holds one and never that nobody else flies the name: read the “operated by” line on your booking. Cover falls away only where you already received benefits, compensation and assistance in the country you flew from for the same disruption.

A Canadian route answers to the Air Passenger Protection Regulations rather than to anything on this page, and a domestic US flight to no compensation rule at all, per US DOT rules. Not sure yours belongs here? Work out which law covers your flight.

Source: EU261 art. 2(c), 3(1) — eur-lex.europa.eu; UK261 art. 3(1) — legislation.gov.uk; EC active operating licence list (19/05/2026) — transport.ec.europa.eu; Austrian ministry operating-licence directory — bmimi.gv.at, checked 2026-09-15.

#How do you claim compensation from Austrian Airlines directly?

€250 to €600 rides on three lines Austrian Airlines needs from you: the flight number and date, the arrival delay at your final stop, and the regulation and amount you claim. Send that in writing first, because both escalation routes count their clock from the day the airline received it.

Keep a copy of whatever you send Austrian Airlines, since that date matters if the claim later needs to move to Schlichtung Reise & Verkehr. Nothing obliges you to take a voucher: EU261’s payment rules set what the money must arrive as, and what no tariff clause can take away.

Name the regulation, the article and the amount instead of asking what you are owed. On a Vienna-Bangkok booking that reads “EU261, article 7(1)(c), €600 per passenger” once you land four hours or more late, and €300 below that: the leg’s 8,450 km great-circle line puts it in the top band, where the reduction is Austrian Airlines' choice.

Choosing reimbursement or re-routing under article 8 does not use up your separate right to the fixed article 7 amount. Eight weeks from the day you send your claim is the point an unresolved complaint can move to escalation.

Source: EU261 art. 3(5), 7(3), 15(1) — eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-15.

#Where do you escalate a refused Austrian Airlines claim?

8 weeks of silence from Austrian Airlines, or a final refusal, opens the escalation. A UK departure goes to Schlichtung Reise & Verkehr in Berlin, the only foreign scheme on the CAA’s list; an Austrian departure goes to Vienna’s own agency, on a shorter fuse.

Its terms — eight weeks for deadlock, twelve months to file after Austrian Airlines' final response, no cost to you — come from the CAA’s own ADR conditions, not a rulebook Schlichtung Reise & Verkehr publishes itself.

That fuse is Austria’s own: the Agentur für Passagier- und Fahrgastrechte asks only that the airline has had your written complaint for six weeks, and it is a free alternative to court rather than a step you must clear before one. Any other state uses its body on the Commission’s 27 August 2026 list. Read the ADR scheme guide or the ADR membership map.

#If Austrian Airlines rejects your claim

Read a rejection against your flights' actual times, not how tight the connection looked. One passenger reported (Reddit r/Flights, July 2025) that Austrian Airlines denied hotel reimbursement and compensation for a missed Vienna connection where the first flight landed on time: “Today austrian got to me and denied all compensation even hotel reimbursement.” Other posters in the thread said no compensation was due because both flights ran on schedule. Read what to do when an airline refuses compensation.

A defence that succeeds removes the €250 to €600 alone. Article 5(3) exempts Austrian Airlines from the article 7 compensation only, so the meals and hotel under article 9, and the re-routing or refund under article 8, continue to be owed.

Source: CAA, foreign ADR list — caa.co.uk; apf, “Fristen” — apf.gv.at; European Commission, national enforcement bodies list (27 August 2026) — transport.ec.europa.eu; EU261 arts. 5(3), 8, 9 and 16(1) — eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-18.

Still unpaid after Schlichtung Reise & Verkehr or a national enforcement body? AirHelp (third-party claim service) can take on rejected or ignored Austrian Airlines claims, no win no fee, and keeps a fee from any payout; Austrian Airlines' own claim channel and the relevant ADR body stay open.
Do it yourself · freeClaim with the airline, then the regulator
  • Write to the airline and keep the reference
  • Refused: the enforcement body of the country you left, free
  • You keep all of the compensation
Use the claim letter template →
Hand it overAirHelp takes the claim, no win no fee
  • They deal with Austrian Airlines for you
  • AirHelp's fee is 35% of the compensation, VAT included, and nothing if the claim fails.
Start with AirHelp Third-party claim service

#How long do you have to claim against Austrian Airlines?

3 years is Austria’s own period against Austrian Airlines, under §1489 of the ABGB, and it starts where no UK statute on this page starts: from the moment you knew both the damage and who caused it, rather than from the date of the flight.

No Austrian ruling applying §1489 to a EU261 claim was found, so treat Austria’s three-year period as the outside edge and file well inside it. The UK statutes count from a fixed point instead: article 3(9) with section 9 of the Limitation Act 1980 gives England and Wales six years from the flight date, Northern Ireland’s 1989 Order the same, Scotland’s 1973 Act five. Cuadrench Moré (C-139/11, 2012) is why the two answers may differ.

Compare Austrian Airlines with Lufthansa and Swiss, both escalating to Schlichtung Reise & Verkehr, and LOT Polish Airlines, covered by EU261 and UK261 the same way from a different national licence; Eurowings splits the same cover across German and Maltese licences.

General information on Austrian Airlines compensation, not legal advice. For your specific case, contact the Agentur für Passagier- und Fahrgastrechte, Citizens Advice or a solicitor; for flights from another EU country, that country’s national enforcement body.

Source: ABGB §1489 — ris.bka.gv.at; Limitation Act 1980 s.9 and Limitation (NI) Order 1989 art. 4, with UK261 art. 3(9) and Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973 s.6 — legislation.gov.uk; Cuadrench Moré, C-139/11 — eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-18.

#Sources

#FAQ

How do I claim compensation from Austrian Airlines?
Give Austrian Airlines your flight number, the date and how late you arrived; it owes the amount for your distance band directly. No reply within 8 weeks, or a final refusal, lets a UK-departure claim move to Schlichtung Reise & Verkehr in Berlin; an EU-departure claim moves to that country's own enforcement body instead.
Does UK261 apply to Austrian Airlines flights from London?
Yes - a London departure on Austrian Airlines sits inside UK261 whatever the carrier's nationality, so £220 to £520 is due on a 3-hour arrival delay the airline cannot blame on extraordinary circumstances. Austrian Airlines AG is a Community carrier too, which extends UK261 to its inbound UK flights unless you were compensated elsewhere.
How long do I have to claim against Austrian Airlines?
England, Wales and Northern Ireland give you 6 years to sue under UK261's own limitation rule. Scotland's Prescription and Limitation Act sets 5 years, but no court has yet tested that period against a UK261 claim. For an EU261 claim, Cuadrench Moré holds that the regulation itself sets no deadline, leaving each Member State's national law to decide.
Austrian Airlines landed me at a different airport - is that a cancellation?
Not a cancellation, on the Court of Justice's reading in Austrian Airlines (WZ), C-826/19: a diversion to another airport serving the same region counts as a delay. Austrian Airlines still had to carry the transfer cost, and a long enough arrival delay still earned compensation unless extraordinary circumstances excused it. Decided after 2020: persuasive in the UK, not binding.

Spotted a wrong figure, a changed rule or a dead link? Tell the editorial team. How fixes are handled: corrections.