EU261 €How long you have to claim compensation for a flight in the Netherlands

Checked 15 Sep 2026·8 min read

Two years, not six, governs an EU261 claim from a Dutch airport, and unlike most countries in this set a Dutch court has already applied that period to a flight-delay compensation claim by name, rather than leaving this page to infer it. Below: where the two years comes from, which flights it covers, and why the Dutch enforcement body’s own one-year intake rule is not the court deadline.

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

2 years is the Netherlands' limitation period for an EU261 claim, set by article 8:1835 of Book 8 of the Burgerlijk Wetboek and running from the day after arrival. A Dutch court has applied that period directly to a flight-delay compensation claim, so the figure comes from a ruling, not only a reading of the statute.

Source: BW Boek 8, art. 8:1835 — wetten.overheid.nl; Rechtbank Oost-Brabant, ECLI:NL:RBOBR:2019:5010 — rechtspraak.nl, checked 2026-09-18.

Two years is short by the standards of this set. Germany gives three; Spain and France give five; England and Wales give six, and every country’s figure sits side by side. Assume the UK number on a flight that left Schiphol and you have already lost a year of the time you thought you had.

Article 8:1835 treats a delay the same as a cancellation: the same two years, counted the same way from arrival.

Check your flight’s arrival date now. Two years does not pause for anything covered on this page, and it is a good deal less time than you probably assumed you had.

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

Cuadrench Moré (C-139/11, 2012) sends this question to Dutch law: the CJEU held that EU261 fixes no limitation period of its own, leaving it to each Member State. For the Netherlands, that law is article 8:1835 of Book 8 of the Burgerlijk Wetboek (BW), the part of the Dutch Civil Code covering carriage by air.

Source: Cuadrench Moré, C-139/11 (2012), operative part — eur-lex.europa.eu; BW Boek 8, art. 8:1835 — wetten.overheid.nl, checked 2026-09-18.

Article 8:1835 reads: “Iedere vordering terzake van een overeenkomst van luchtvervoer vervalt door verloop van twee jaren...” In English: any claim relating to a contract of carriage by air lapses after two years, running from the day after arrival, the day the aircraft ought to have arrived, or the day carriage stopped.

What makes the Dutch position unusual here is that a court has already applied that article to an EU261-style claim directly, not just to an ordinary carriage dispute. On 29 August 2019 the Rechtbank Oost-Brabant, a Dutch district court, applied article 8:1835’s two-year period to a flight-delay compensation claim, in a ruling captioned “Luchtvaartzaak, compensatie voor vertraagde vlucht”. A district court is the lowest Dutch tier and no Hoge Raad ruling on the point was found, so this is not the last word. It is still more than most countries in this set have: the two years is what a Dutch court did with the article, not this page’s inference from a statute.

A flight that landed, or should have landed, on 10 June 2026 starts its clock on 11 June, the day after, and runs out two years later in June 2028. Do not plan to the last day of it. Article 8:1835 fixes the start; how a Dutch court counts the closing day is not something to test with the whole claim.

Count two years from the day after your arrival, not from your original departure time, and not from the date an airline eventually answers you.

#Which flights does the Netherlands' deadline govern?

2 questions decide whether the two-year deadline is yours, and the first is easy: did you take off from a Dutch airport? If you did, article 3(1)(a) of Regulation 261/2004 covers you on any airline in the world, and a Dutch court is the one that would hear the claim.

Source: Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, art. 3(1)(a)-(b), art. 16 — eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-18.

Schiphol, Rotterdam The Hague and Eindhoven all count, and so does the carrier you have never heard of. On a departure the airport is the whole test.

The second question only arises if you flew into the Netherlands from outside the EU, and it is the one people get wrong. Article 3(1)(b) asks who operated the aircraft: a Community carrier puts you inside EU261, anyone else leaves you outside it, and outside it the two years on this page do not reach you at all. You also drop out if the country you left already gave you compensation and assistance.

Two consequences worth holding on to. The ILT’s competence under article 16 tracks exactly those two categories, so it is the right office for a Dutch departure and for a Community-carrier arrival, and the wrong one otherwise. And under article 3(5) the money is owed by the airline that flew the aircraft, not by whoever sold you the ticket — check that on a connection you booked as a single trip.

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

The Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport (ILT) is the Netherlands' enforcement body for EU261, but it is not where an individual compensation request actually goes: the ILT does not itself handle those requests, and it only takes a complaint at all for a flight within the last year.

Source: ILT, passenger complaints — ilent.nl, checked 2026-09-18.

That one-year intake rule is the ILT’s own, and it is a full year shorter than the two-year period that actually decides whether a court will hear your claim. A passenger whose flight was 14 months ago can be turned away by the ILT and still have ten months left to sue. Treating an ILT refusal as the end of the claim, rather than as one office’s own cut-off, is the mistake this page exists to prevent.

Where the ILT does take a complaint, its role is investigation and pressure on the airline’s general practice. It does not pay you directly, and nothing about a complaint to it pauses or extends the two-year court deadline above.

Report a recent refusal to the ILT if your flight is inside a year old. For anything older, or for the money, a Dutch court or the European Small Claims Procedure, not the ILT, is the route that can end in payment. That European procedure opens only where one side is domiciled in another EU country, so a UK resident suing a Dutch airline in the Netherlands is left with the ordinary Dutch route.

#What to do before the deadline runs out

2 years in court, 1 year at the ILT: the Netherlands runs two clocks at different speeds, and only the slower one decides whether you still have a claim. Learn which of the two you are up against before you need the answer, because the fast one expires quietly.

Write to the airline first. Name the flight, the date, what happened, and the amount claimed under article 7 of Regulation 261/2004, and keep a dated copy of what you sent.

If the airline refuses or does not answer, report it to the ILT within a year if you still can. Past that year, or regardless of it, a Dutch court claim, or the European Small Claims Procedure where that cross-border condition is met, is what actually keeps a claim alive up to the two-year mark.

Working out whether the ILT can still help, or whether it is time for court? AirHelp (third-party claim service) can take on a refused or ignored EU261 claim, no win no fee, and keeps a fee from any payout. Writing to the airline stays open to you either way.

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 the airline 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

General information about EU261 claims in the Netherlands, not legal advice. For your specific case: the ILT, a Dutch consumer-protection body or a solicitor. If your flight was close to two years ago, do not wait on the ILT’s answer to decide whether to go to court.

#Sources

• BW Boek 8, art. 8:1835 - wetten.overheid.nl, checked 2026-09-18.
• Rechtbank Oost-Brabant, 29 August 2019, ECLI:NL:RBOBR:2019:5010 - rechtspraak.nl, checked 2026-09-18.
• Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport (ILT), passenger complaints - ilent.nl, checked 2026-09-18.
• Cuadrench Moré, C-139/11 (2012), CJEU, operative part - eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-18.
• Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, arts. 3(1)(a)-(b), 3(5) and 16 - eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-18.
• European Commission, National Enforcement Bodies — Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 (updated 27 August 2026) - transport.ec.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-15.

#FAQ

How long do I have to claim for a delayed flight from Netherlands?

2 years, not the UK's 6. Article 8:1835 of the Dutch Burgerlijk Wetboek sets a two-year period for an EU261 claim, and a Dutch district court has applied it directly to a flight-delay compensation case, so the figure has been tested in court, not only read off the statute.

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

No. A Dutch court has already ruled on this exact question and applied the Netherlands' own two-year period, not the UK's six, to an EU261 delay claim. UK261's six years is a rule for claims heard in England and Wales; it has no reach over a flight that departed Schiphol or any other Dutch airport.