How long you have to claim compensation for a flight in Italy
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. Italy is one of the harder answers in the whole EU. Three domestic periods compete for the same claim, and Italy’s highest civil court has not settled which one governs. This page names all three, states the period that is safe to act on, and says who in Italy actually handles a complaint.
Italy is one of the harder answers in the whole 
EU. Three domestic periods compete for the same claim, and #How long do you have to bring an EU261 claim in Italy?
6 months is the safest deadline to work to for an EU261 claim in Italy, because Italian law does not settle on a single period. Three statutes compete: 6 months, 1 year and 10 years. Even Italy’s highest civil court has left open which one governs a flat-rate EU261 claim.
Source: Codice della Navigazione art. 418; Codice Civile artt. 2946, 2951 — normattiva.it, checked 2026-09-18.
Article 418 of the Codice della Navigazione is the most specific candidate. Rights from a contract of passenger carriage prescribe after six months from the passenger’s arrival at the destination. Article 2951 of the Codice Civile sets one year for rights arising from a transport contract generally, extended to eighteen months where the carriage begins or ends outside Europe. Article 2946 is the residual default that catches any right the law does not give a shorter period for: ten years.
No Italian statute says which of the three applies to EU261’s flat-rate compensation, as opposed to an ordinary transport-contract dispute. Most EU countries settle this with one period. Italy has not, and no single figure here is confirmed.
Act inside six months. File your written claim with the airline, and take any further step, inside that period. A later court ruling for the one-year or ten-year period would help a claim you already filed. It does nothing for a claim you let lapse at month seven. The ITA Airways card works to the same six months for Italia Trasporto Aereo S.p.A.
ITA Airways#Where does that deadline come from, and what starts the clock?
2 years under the Montreal Convention does not apply to an EU261 claim in Italy. Italy’s Corte di Cassazione, its highest civil court, ruled that out directly in 2024. The same ruling left the domestic question open, on a separate technical point, without ever reaching which of the three Italian periods governs.
Source: Corte di Cassazione, Sez. III, Ordinanza n. 4427/2024 — italgiure.giustizia.it, checked 2026-09-18.
The Cassazione’s 2024 ruling arose from a dispute between an airline and a claims company over this exact question. On the point it did decide, it was clear. EU261 compensation is “indennitaria”, a flat-rate entitlement, not the individualised damages claim Montreal’s two-year bar was built for. That period does not govern it. The airline’s separate argument for six months or one year was set aside on a procedural ground, not the merits. Which domestic period governs remains undecided even at the highest level.
Where the clock starts differs by provision. The six-month period under article 418 runs “dall’arrivo a destinazione del passeggero”: from the day the passenger arrives at the final destination, not the day you complain to anyone. Treating that arrival date as day one, for whichever period eventually turns out to govern, is the safest reading available.
Count six months from your landing date, not from the date you first wrote to the airline or to ENAC.
#Which flights does Italy’s deadline govern?
Any airline flying you out of an Italian airport falls under EU261, whatever its nationality, under article 3(1)(a). A flight arriving in Italy from outside the EU is covered only when a Community carrier operated it, under article 3(1)(b). The exception: 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) — eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-18.
The obligation itself sits with the operating air carrier, the airline that actually flew the aircraft, under article 3(5) — not with whoever sold you the ticket. That matters on a flight departing Italy on a non-EU carrier: it is covered purely because Italy is where you left from. It also matters on a flight arriving in Italy on a Community carrier from outside the EU. That leg is covered under the arrival rule, even if a non-EU carrier operated the outbound leg of the same trip.
Italy’s own limitation periods are the ones that matter once either branch applies. They govern a claim covered by article 3(1)(a) or 3(1)(b) the same way, because Regulation 261/2004 itself sets no separate deadline for one branch over the other.
Check your boarding pass or e-ticket for the operating carrier before you rely on either branch.
#Who handles a complaint in Italy, and what can they do?
2 separate bodies split the work in Italy. ENAC, the national civil aviation authority, is the body the European Commission lists for EU261 enforcement, but it sanctions the airline rather than paying you anything. ART’s ConciliaWeb platform is where an individual passenger’s dispute against the airline is actually pursued.
European Commission lists for EU261 enforcement, but it sanctions the airline rather than paying you anything. ART’s ConciliaWeb platform is where an individual passenger’s dispute against the airline is actually pursued.Source: ENAC, EU261 complaint procedure — enac.gov.it; ART, ConciliaWeb — autorita-trasporti.it; European Commission, National Enforcement Bodies list (updated 27 August 2026) — transport.ec.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-18.
ENAC — Ente Nazionale per l’Aviazione Civile — can fine an airline for breaching Regulation 261/2004, and the Commission’s own list names it as Italy’s National Enforcement Body. What ENAC cannot do is award you the compensation itself: its role is regulatory, not a claims process. ART, the Autorità di Regolazione dei Trasporti, runs ConciliaWeb as a separate, non-jurisdictional platform for the actual passenger-versus-airline dispute. Whether using ConciliaWeb is mandatory before you can go to court was not stated on ART’s own page. Treat it as an available route, not a required one.
Filing a report with ENAC flags the breach. It is not the same act as pursuing your money through ConciliaWeb or the courts, and neither one stops your six-month clock from running while you wait for a reply.
#What to do before the deadline runs out
6 months is worth writing into your calendar on your landing day. It is the earliest of the three candidate periods, the only one that protects a claim regardless of which statute eventually wins. Waiting to see whether a court favours the one-year or ten-year figure risks a claim a judge could still call time-barred.
The clock does not pause. Write to the airline first, in writing, stating the flight, the date and the compensation you are owed under Regulation 261/2004. If it refuses or does not reply, report the breach to ENAC. Pursue the claim itself through ART’s ConciliaWeb or the Italian courts, all before six months have passed since you landed. The longer periods remain arguable if you are already past that point, but no ruling promises they will hold.
AirHelp (third-party claim service)- Write to the airline and keep the reference
- Refused: the enforcement body of the country you left, free
- You keep all of the compensation
Hand it overAirHelp takes the claim, no win no fee- They deal with the airline for you
- AirHelp's fee is 35% of the compensation, VAT included, and nothing if the claim fails.
General information about EU261 claims in Italy, not legal advice. For your specific case, contact ENAC, ART’s ConciliaWeb 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.
- Codice della Navigazione, art. 418 - normattiva.it, checked 2026-09-18.
- Codice Civile, art. 2951 - normattiva.it, checked 2026-09-18.
- Codice Civile, art. 2946 - normattiva.it, checked 2026-09-18.
- Corte di Cassazione, Sez. III, Ordinanza n. 4427/2024 - italgiure.giustizia.it, checked 2026-09-18.
- ENAC, EU261 complaint procedure - enac.gov.it, checked 2026-09-18.
- ART, ConciliaWeb and passenger rights - autorita-trasporti.it, checked 2026-09-18.
- European Commission, National Enforcement Bodies list (updated 27 August 2026) - transport.ec.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-18.
UK figure is the limit in 
England and 
Wales, and Regulation 261/2004 sets no deadline of its own - the CJEU sent that question to national law. Italian law answers it three times over, and the shortest of the three, article 418's six months, is the one that protects an Italian claim.