EU261 €Greece EU261 deadline: 2 years or 20, no ruling found

Checked 18 Sep 2026·7 min read

Regulation 261/2004 sets no deadline of its own for a compensation claim: Cuadrench Moré (C-139/11) sends that question to each country’s own law. Greece names two periods that could answer it, and no ruling of Greece’s highest civil court, the Areios Pagos, was found choosing between them for an EU261 claim specifically. This page names both, states the period that is safe to act on, and names the department that actually handles a Greek complaint.

#EU261 €How long do you have to bring an EU261 claim in Greece?

2 years is the safer of two competing Greek periods to treat as your deadline for an EU261 claim, even though the Civil Code’s ordinary period runs to 20 years. Greek law gives two live answers, and no Areios Pagos ruling choosing between them for a Regulation 261/2004 claim was found. Both stay open.

Source: Greek Aviation Code (Ν.1815/1988) art. 155(a); Civil Code art. 249 — Greek government official codified text, checked 2026-09-18.

Article 155(a) of the Greek Aviation Code sets two years for damages and injuries arising during carriage. It is a Warsaw and Montreal-style provision aimed at accident-type liability. Article 249 of the Civil Code is the residual default: “Εφόσον δεν ορίζεται διαφορετικά, οι αξιώσεις παραγράφονται σε είκοσι χρόνια” — unless another period is set, claims prescribe after twenty years. It would govern instead if EU261’s flat-rate compensation falls outside article 155(a)'s accident-and-damage scope, the same reasoning used elsewhere in the EU. A third candidate, the five-year period in Civil Code article 250(3), was checked and ruled out: it covers the carrier’s own claim against a passenger for unpaid fares, not a passenger’s claim against the carrier.

File inside two years of the flight. Do not lean on the twenty-year figure: it may still apply, but nothing in Greek law confirms it for this kind of claim.

#Where does that deadline come from, and what starts the clock?

No Areios Pagos ruling was found applying either the 2-year aviation period or the 20-year civil period to an EU261 compensation claim specifically. Both provisions exist in Greek law. No decision was found in which Greece’s highest civil court tested either against Regulation 261/2004’s flat-rate compensation.

Source: Cuadrench Moré, C-139/11 (2012), operative part — eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-18.

Regulation 261/2004 decides nothing here. In Cuadrench Moré, the CJEU held that each Member State’s own rules on the limitation of actions govern an EU261 claim. For a flight covered by Greek law, that hands the question straight to the conflict between article 155(a) and article 249. No Greek ruling settling it was found. The accident-and-damage wording of article 155(a) reads narrower than EU261’s sui generis, no-fault compensation, which is the argument for the twenty-year period applying instead. That same argument has not been tested in Greece the way it has in Germany and Italy, where the Bundesgerichtshof and the Corte di Cassazione held that the Montreal Convention’s two-year bar does not govern EU261 compensation at all.

Nothing found in the material behind this page states precisely which day starts either clock for Greek law specifically. Treat your scheduled arrival date as day one and count the shorter, two-year period from it, the same starting point EU261 claims commonly use elsewhere in the EU.

#Which flights does Greece’s deadline govern?

Any airline flying you out of a Greek airport falls under EU261, whatever its nationality, under article 3(1)(a). A flight arriving in Greece from outside the EU is covered only when a Community carrier operated it, under article 3(1)(b), unless you already received benefits, compensation and assistance in the country you departed from.

Source: Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 arts. 3(1)(a), 3(1)(b), 3(5) — eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-18.

The obligation sits with the operating air carrier under article 3(5): the airline that actually flew the aircraft, not whoever sold you the trip. That distinction matters most on a package holiday to a Greek island. The seller rarely owes it. A charter flight to Crete or Rhodes booked through a UK tour operator is commonly flown by an airline under contract to that operator. The tour operator sold you the package, but Regulation 261/2004 puts the compensation duty on the operating airline, not on the seller. Complaining to the tour operator does not start an EU261 claim. Check your boarding pass or booking confirmation for the airline that actually operated the flight before you rely on either branch of this page.

#Who handles a complaint in Greece, and what can they do?

1 department inside Greece’s civil aviation authority handles an EU261 complaint: the Passenger Rights and Air Carriers Operating Licensing Section of the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA). It is named as Greece’s National Enforcement Body on the European Commission’s own list of designated national bodies.

Source: HCAA, Passenger Rights and Air Carriers Operating Licensing Section — hcaa.gov.gr; European Commission, National Enforcement Bodies list (updated 27 August 2026) — transport.ec.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-18.

Regulation 261/2004 designates a national body to enforce the rules against airlines. It puts the actual payment duty on the operating carrier, not on that body. HCAA’s Passenger Rights section fits the same pattern as every other EU enforcement body. It takes complaints and acts against airlines that breach the Regulation. It does not write you a cheque. Whether HCAA can order an airline to pay a specific passenger, beyond sanctioning it generally, was not confirmed from the material behind this page. Treat a complaint to HCAA as a way to flag the breach, not as a substitute for pursuing the airline directly.

Report the breach to HCAA. Pursue the airline itself, through the Greek courts if it does not pay, inside your two-year working deadline. The Aegean Airlines card applies the same two-year reading to the two Greek companies that fly that brand.

#What to do before the deadline runs out

2 years is worth writing into your calendar on your scheduled arrival date. It is the shorter of the two candidate periods, the only one that protects a claim regardless of which statute Greek courts eventually favour. Waiting to see whether the twenty-year figure holds risks a claim a court could still call time-barred.

Write to the operating airline first, in writing. Name the flight, the date and the compensation owed under Regulation 261/2004. If it refuses or does not reply, report the breach to the HCAA’s Passenger Rights and Air Carriers Operating Licensing Section. Then take the claim to the Greek courts if you need to enforce it, all inside two years of your scheduled arrival. The twenty-year period remains arguable if you are already past that point, but no ruling promises it will hold for this kind of claim.

Rather not chase HCAA, the airline and a two-year clock yourself? AirHelp (third-party claim service) can take on a rejected or ignored EU261 claim, no win no fee, and keeps a fee from any payout. Reporting the breach to HCAA stays open to you either way.

Do it yourself · freeClaim with the airline, then the regulator

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• 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

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General information about EU261 claims in Greece, not legal advice. For your specific case, contact HCAA or a solicitor. For every regime and country side by side, see flight compensation time limits; for which law applies to your flight at all, see which law covers my flight.

#Sources

• Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, arts. 3, 16 - eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-18.
• Cuadrench Moré, C-139/11 (2012), operative part - eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-18.
• Greek Aviation Code (Κώδικας Αεροπορικού Δικαίου), Ν.1815/1988, art. 155(a) — Greek government official codified text, checked 2026-09-18.
• Civil Code (Αστικός Κώδικας), arts. 249, 250(3) — Greek government official codified text, checked 2026-09-18.
• Bundesgerichtshof, 10 December 2009, Xa ZR 61/09 - bundesgerichtshof.de, checked 2026-09-18.
• Corte Suprema di Cassazione, Ordinanza n. 4427/2024 - italgiure.giustizia.it, checked 2026-09-18.
• Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA), Passenger Rights and Air Carriers Operating Licensing Section - hcaa.gov.gr, checked 2026-09-18.
• European Commission, National Enforcement Bodies list (updated 27 August 2026) - transport.ec.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-18.

#FAQ

Does the UK six-year limit apply to my flight from Greece?

2 years is the Greek figure to work to. The UK's six-year limit belongs to a claim heard in England and Wales, and it is neither the floor nor the ceiling in Greece: Greek law offers two candidates, two years and twenty, and no Areios Pagos ruling choosing between them for an EU261 claim was found.

Who do I complain to about an airline in Greece?

1 department: HCAA's Passenger Rights and Air Carriers Operating Licensing Section is Greece's National Enforcement Body. It can act against an airline that breaches EU261, but the compensation duty itself sits with the operating airline, not with HCAA, so pursue the airline directly to actually get paid.