# EU261 in France: 5 years, DGAC comes second Source: https://airtravelrights.com/eu261/claim-in-france/ > DGAC opens a signalement only after you''ve written to the airline and waited two months; that wait does not extend France''s 5-year court deadline. # How long you have to claim compensation for a flight in France Three sources point to France's number. The Code civil sets it, the DGAC's own FAQ repeats it for the Regulation, and a 2019 Cour de cassation ruling keeps a Regulation claim off the shorter Montreal track. The harder part of a French claim is not the number. It is that the DGAC only takes up a case once you have already written to the airline and waited. Below: the source, the scope, and what happens once you contact the DGAC. ## How long do you have to bring an EU261 claim in France? 5 years is France's limitation period for an EU261 claim, set by article 2224 of the Code civil and counted from the flight date. The DGAC states the same five years for the Regulation on its own FAQ, and a 2019 Cour de cassation ruling kept a claim founded on the Regulation outside the Montreal Convention's shorter period. Source: Code civil art. 2224; Cour de cassation, Civ. 1, 10 Oct 2019, pourvoi n° 18-20.490 - courdecassation.fr; DGAC FAQ - droits-passagers-aeriens.aviation-civile.gouv.fr, checked 2026-09-18. Three sources landing on the same figure is unusual in this set: the statute, the highest civil court, and the regulator's own published answer. Spain gives the same five years; Poland gives one; England and Wales give six, and [every country's figure sits side by side](https://airtravelrights.com/flight-compensation-time-limits/). A passenger reading a British guide for a flight out of Paris is reading the wrong country's number. Article 2224 treats a delay and a cancellation alike: the same five years, counted from the flight date. Check your flight date now. Five years is generous here, but the DGAC's process, covered below, does nothing to extend it. ## Where does that deadline come from, and what starts the clock? Cuadrench Moré (C-139/11, 2012) is why this question has a French answer at all: the CJEU held that EU261 sets no limitation period of its own, and each Member State's own law on limitation fills the gap. For France, that law is article 2224 of the Code civil. Source: Cuadrench Moré, C-139/11 (2012), operative part - eur-lex.europa.eu; Code civil art. 2224, confirmed via the ruling and FAQ below (legifrance.gouv.fr blocked automated access this session), checked 2026-09-18. Article 2224 reads: "Les actions personnelles ... se prescrivent par cinq ans à compter du jour où le titulaire d'un droit a connu ou aurait dû connaître les faits lui permettant de l'exercer." In English: personal actions prescribe after five years from the day the holder knew, or should have known, the facts letting them act - for a flight, the date it operated, or should have. An airline argued for a shorter period instead. In a 10 October 2019 ruling, the Cour de cassation held that a compensation claim founded on the Regulation is not a Montreal-governed damages claim tied to a specific injury, so article 2224's five years applies, not Montreal's shorter period. The DGAC's FAQ agrees: "le délai de recours ... est de 5 ans, à compter de la date de l'incident" - five years, from the date of the incident. A flight disrupted on 15 April 2026 has until 15 April 2031 to reach court. legifrance.gouv.fr returned a Cloudflare challenge to every request made for this page, so article 2224's text is confirmed through the ruling and the FAQ, not the statute site. Count five years from your flight date, and keep a dated copy of whatever you send. ## Which flights does France's deadline govern? Article 3(1)(a) of Regulation 261/2004 covers every flight leaving a French airport, on any airline, whatever country that airline is registered in. France's five-year deadline reaches a claim on any of those departures, because a French court is the one that would hear it. Source: Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, art. 3(1)(a)-(b), art. 16 - eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-18. Departure coverage needs nothing more than the airport: a flight out of Paris Charles de Gaulle, Orly, Nice or Lyon falls under EU261 whatever the operating airline's nationality. A flight arriving into France from outside the EU is narrower: article 3(1)(b) brings it under EU261 only if the operating carrier is a Community carrier and you did not already receive compensation and assistance in the country you left from. A France-bound flight on any other carrier from outside the EU sits outside EU261 altogether, so the five-year figure here never applies to it. Article 16 hands the designated body flights leaving France and flights into France from a third country, with no carrier condition attached; whether the Regulation covers that arrival at all is article 3(1)(b)'s question, not the DGAC's remit. The obligation sits with the operating carrier, under article 3(5), not the seller. ## Who handles a complaint in France, and what can they do? The DGAC, France's aviation regulator, is the country's National Enforcement Body for EU261, through its Mission du droit des passagers. It will not open what it calls a signalement until you have already put your claim to the airline in writing and waited at least two months without a satisfactory answer. Source: DGAC, Mission du droit des passagers - droits-passagers-aeriens.aviation-civile.gouv.fr; Médiateur du Tourisme et du Voyage - mtv.travel, checked 2026-09-18. That two-month wait is the DGAC's own condition for acting, not a rule that stops you suing. A signalement is not a precondition for going to court; file there at any point inside the five years above. What the DGAC delivers, once started, is oversight, not a payment to you. A second route sits alongside the DGAC: the Médiateur du Tourisme et du Voyage, an independent mediator, but only if your airline is one of its adherents. Two passenger reports show the order people actually try. In February 2026 u/The_Pediatrician posted on r/travel about a Paris CDG departure delayed more than three hours, with the airline refusing €400 and offering a €50 voucher. Another poster, u/Natural-Swimming-860, replied: "I'd wait for DGAC first but also send a short 14 day formal demand letter stating you'll pursue the European Small Claims Procedure if unpaid." In May 2026 the original poster answered a follow-up on the same thread: "No, also the French aviation authority couldn't get a response." Those are two passenger reports on one thread, not a measure of how long the DGAC takes. Whatever the band — €250, €400 or €600 by distance — an airline that proves extraordinary circumstances owes none of it. ## What to do before the deadline runs out 5 years sounds generous, and that is the trap. A DGAC signalement can sit open for months, a Médiateur file for months after it, and neither one moves the date article 2224 fixed on the day your flight went wrong. Only a court claim ends the count. Write to the airline first: state the flight number, the date, what happened and the amount claimed under article 7 of Regulation 261/2004, and keep a dated copy. Give it a fair chance to answer; do not treat silence as a reason to wait. If two months pass with no answer, or an unsatisfactory one, take it to the DGAC as a signalement, or to the Médiateur if your airline is one of its adherents. Either route runs on its own timetable, separate from the five years above; a court claim, filed directly if you would rather skip both, is the only step that stops the clock. For a low-value claim, the [small claims routes used across Europe](https://airtravelrights.com/eu261/small-claims-europe/) are the cheaper way in. The European one among them opens only where one side is domiciled in another EU country, so a UK resident suing a French airline in France uses the ordinary French route instead. > Rather not track a DGAC signalement and a five-year clock yourself? [AirHelp (third-party claim service)](https://airtravelrights.com/partner/airhelp?ref=atr-gd-claim-fr-b) can take on a refused or ignored EU261 claim, no win no fee, and keeps a fee from any payout. Writing to the airline and filing with the DGAC both stay open to you either way. General information about EU261 claims in France, not legal advice. For your specific case: the DGAC, a French consumer-protection association or a solicitor. If your flight was close to five years ago, get advice now rather than wait on the DGAC or the Médiateur to answer. ## Sources - Code civil, art. 2224 - confirmed via the Cour de cassation ruling below (legifrance.gouv.fr blocked automated access this session) - [courdecassation.fr](https://www.courdecassation.fr/decision/5fca65c7bde75e4eba09f3af), checked 2026-09-18. - Cour de cassation, Civ. 1, 10 October 2019, pourvoi n° 18-20.490 (ECLI:FR:CCASS:2019:C100812) - [courdecassation.fr](https://www.courdecassation.fr/decision/5fca65c7bde75e4eba09f3af), checked 2026-09-18. - Direction générale de l'Aviation civile (DGAC), passenger FAQ - [droits-passagers-aeriens.aviation-civile.gouv.fr](https://droits-passagers-aeriens.aviation-civile.gouv.fr/public/je-m-informe), checked 2026-09-18. - DGAC, Mission du droit des passagers - [droits-passagers-aeriens.aviation-civile.gouv.fr](https://droits-passagers-aeriens.aviation-civile.gouv.fr/public/qui-sommes-nous), checked 2026-09-18. - Médiateur du Tourisme et du Voyage, FAQ - [mtv.travel](https://mtv.travel/faq/), checked 2026-09-18. - Cuadrench Moré, C-139/11 (2012), CJEU, operative part - [eur-lex.europa.eu](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:62011CJ0139), checked 2026-09-18. - Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, arts. 3(1)(a)-(b), 3(5) and 16 - [eur-lex.europa.eu](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32004R0261), checked 2026-09-18. - European Commission, National Enforcement Bodies - Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 (updated 27 August 2026) - [transport.ec.europa.eu](https://transport.ec.europa.eu/document/download/d7b5dd33-4083-4faa-8132-b6dc8b3a1c07_en), checked 2026-09-15.