Flight cancellations

With the introduction of regulation no. 574/2005, the following rules entered into force when a flight is cancelled:

  • When a flight departs from an EEA state (irrespective of air operator) and
  • In a flight to an EEA state, provided that the air operator conducting the flight has an air operator licence issued within the EEA

Note: When a package tour is cancelled for reasons other than the flight being cancelled, the following rules do not apply.


Passengers shall be offered assistance from the air operator to:

  • Get  their ticket reimbursed for the part of the journey not made, and for the part or parts already made if the flight is no longer serving any purpose in relation to the passenger's original travel plan, and
  • Get a return flight to the first point of departure, at the earliest opportunity (if applicable), or
  • Re-route, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination.An air operator shall furthermore offer passengers meals, refreshments, and communication facilities free of charge. If passengers are re-routed so that the scheduled time of departure of the new flight is at least one day after the scheduled departure of the flight which was cancelled, the air operator shall also offer passengers hotel accommodation and transport between the aerodrome and the accommodation.


Passengers also have a right to compensation from the air operator, unless

  • a flight is cancelled at least two weeks before the scheduled time of departure, or
  • passengers are informed of the cancellation between two weeks and seven days before the scheduled time of departure and are offered re-routing, allowing them to depart no more than two hours before the scheduled time of departure and to reach their final destination less than four hours after the scheduled time of arrival; or
  • passengers are informed of the cancellation less than seven days before the scheduled time of departure and are offered re-routing, allowing them to depart no more than one hour before the scheduled time of departure and to reach their final destination less than two hours after the scheduled time of arrival.

Compensation:

(a) EUR 250 for all flights of 1500 kilometres or less,

(b) EUR 400 for all flights within the EEA of more than 1500 kilometres, and for all other flights between 1500 and 3500 kilometres,

(c) EUR 600 for all flights which do not fall under the preceding (a) and (b) items.


Examples of flights which are 1.500 km or less: All domestic flights in Iceland. Flights from REK/KEF to the Faroe Islands, Kulusuk, Nassarsuaq, Glasgow.

Examples of flights between 1.500 km and 3.500 km: Flights from REK/KEF to Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, London, and Halifax.

Examples of flights over 3.500 km: From REK/KEF to Baltimore, Minneapolis, New York, Boston, Orlando, and San Francisco.

Obligations  on operating air carriers should be limited or excluded in cases where an event has been caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. Such circumstances may, in particular, occur in cases of political instability, meteorological conditions incompatible with the operation of the flight concerned, security risks, unexpected flight safety shortcomings, strikes that affect the operation of an operating air carrier, and air traffic management decisions in relation to one or more particular aircraft which give rise to a cancellation.

The European Court of Justice has reached the conclusion, in case C-549/07 Friederike Wallentin-Hermann v. Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane SpA, that a technical malfunction can not be interpreted as “extraordinary circumstances” if the malfunction is known beforehand.