Air France compensation for delayed and cancelled flights

When an Air France flight is delayed or cancelled, three different rights can come into play, and they are easy to confuse: help at the airport while you wait, a refund or a new flight, and compensation of up to €600 per person under European regulation EC 261. Compensation is the one that depends on how late you arrive and why. It usually applies when you reach your final destination 3 hours or more behind schedule, or when your flight is cancelled less than 14 days before departure, unless the disruption was caused by extraordinary circumstances. This guide takes your rights as an air passenger one at a time, from the first hours of a delay to making a claim.

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You’re protected under European Regulation EC 261, so long as your flight departed from the EU or arrived there on an EU airline.

• You must receive food and drinks if delayed at the airport for 2 hours or more (3 or 4 hours on longer flights), plus accommodation if overnight.

• If the delay upon arrival is 3 hours or more, you may be entitled to compensation.

• Compensation ranges from €250 to €600 under EC 261, depending on the flight distance (e.g., €400 for flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km).

• If the delay is 5 hours or more, you have the right to choose not to travel and receive a refund of the ticket. You are also entitled to a return flight to your original departure airport if necessary.

• 1-hour delay: what the law says →

• 2-hour delay: mandatory assistance →

• 3-hour delay: right to compensation →

• 5-hour delay: travel or take a refund →

1-hour delay: what the law says

A delay of one hour does not entitle you to compensation or assistance from the airline in the form of meals and drinks. However, you have the right to be informed about the delay and its developments.

In certain situations, however, even a one-hour delay could, albeit indirectly, entitle you to compensation. For example, a one-hour delay could result in the loss of a connecting flight, or contribute to a total delay of more than 3 or 4 hours. If you think you fall into one of these categories, check your eligibility with our free compensation checker.

2-hour delay: mandatory assistance

If your Air France flight is delayed by at least 2 hours and is 1,500 km or less, you are entitled to assistance, which includes:

The airline must provide assistance free of charge, even in cases where it is not responsible for the delay – such as in the event of bad weather or other extraordinary circumstances.

As explained above, assistance starts once your flight has been delayed by 2 hours, but only on shorter flights. On longer flights, the threshold rises in stages with the distance, as detailed below:

• 2 hours on flights of up to 1,500 km;

• 3 hours on flights within the EU of more than 1,500 km, including those between mainland France and its overseas departments, and on other flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km;

• 4 hours on long-haul flights of more than 3,500 km between the EU and the rest of the world.

While assistance is based on how long your departure is delayed, compensation works differently, as it depends on how late you arrive at your final destination.

3-hour delay: right to compensation

If your Air France flight arrives 3 hours late or more, in addition to assistance, you may be entitled to compensation under European Regulation EC 261. Arrival time means the moment at least one of the aircraft's doors opens and passengers can get off, not when the wheels touch the runway.

Whether you're entitled to it also depends on the cause of the delay. Under current EU rules, technical problems and staff shortages are normally the airline's responsibility, while severe weather or a security risk can count as extraordinary circumstances and rule compensation out.

5-hour delay: travel or take a refund

Once a delay reaches 5 hours or more, you can still fly or decide not to travel, and each choice comes with its own rights:

If you decide not to travel, you can have your ticket refunded within 7 days.

Air France flight delay compensation amounts are set by European Regulation EC 261 and determined by flight distance and length of delay, not ticket price:

• For short flights covering distances up to 1,500 km, passengers are entitled to €250 per person under EC 261.

• Flights within the EU of more than 1,500 km, and other flights between 1,500 km and 3,500 km, qualify for compensation of €400 per passenger under EC 261.

• Other long-haul flights over 3,500 km have a tiered compensation structure: €600 per passenger for delays of 4 hours or more, and €300 per passenger for delays between 3 and 4 hours, all amounts under EC 261 law.

If you're confused, here's a simple table to help:

Amounts per passenger, as set by EC Regulation 261.

As the table shows, distance isn't the only thing that counts: it also matters whether your flight stays within the EU, and on Air France's network the difference can be striking. Take two flights from Paris, both arriving 3 hours and 30 minutes late:

• Paris to Montréal (about 5,500 km) is a flight of more than 3,500 km between the EU and a non-EU country, so you may be entitled to €300 under EC 261. If the delay reaches 4 hours, the amount rises to €600.

• Paris to Fort-de-France (about 6,900 km) is longer, but Martinique is a French overseas department and part of the EU, so the flight counts as a flight within the EU. You may be entitled to €400 under EC 261, and the amount stays the same after 4 hours.

Air France compensation calculator

Not sure how much you’re owed? Use our free compensation calculator below to see if you're eligible and determine the amount. Just enter your flight details and we’ll estimate your claim.

In the event of an Air France flight cancellation, European Regulation EC 261 grants you certain immediate rights:

• Alternative transportation to get to your destination.

• Ticket refund if you decide not to travel.

• As with delays, you are also entitled to care and assistance, which includes meals, refreshments, communication rights, and hotel room and transportation to and from the airport if necessary.

In addition, you may be entitled to up to €600 in compensation under EC 261.

When are you entitled to flight cancellation compensation?

In the event of flight cancellation, you are eligible for Air France compensation if:

• You received a notice regarding cancellation less than 14 days before departure.

• The airline is responsible for the cancellation (e.g., operational issues or staff shortages).

• If you took a replacement flight, your new arrival time was significantly different to your original flight.

The airline can avoid paying compensation if they were able to offer you an alternative flight which would get you to your destination at a very similar time to your original arrival time.

As with delayed flights, the amount of compensation under EC 261 is based on flight distance, not ticket price, and can be up to €600 per passenger. However, in the case of cancelled flights, eligibility for compensation also depends on the notice given, as well as the alternative flight offered. Here's how the rules break down based on timing:

*Amounts set by EC Regulation 261, depending on flight distance. If you take an alternative flight, the airline can reduce the compensation by 50% if you arrive no more than 2, 3 or 4 hours after your original arrival time, depending on the distance.

To see how these rules work in practice, take a flight from Paris to Istanbul that Air France cancels three days before departure, for a reason within its control. As you were told less than 7 days in advance, the bottom row of the table applies:

• The new flight lands 2 hours and 30 minutes after your original arrival time. That's beyond the 2-hour limit, so you may be entitled to €400 under EC 261. As you still reach Istanbul less than 3 hours late, the amount can be halved to €200.

• The new flight leaves no more than an hour before your original departure time and lands less than 2 hours late. In that case no compensation is owed, but you can still choose between that flight and a refund.

Refund, rebooking or both?

When Air France cancels your flight, the choice of what happens next is yours, not the airline's:

• a new flight to your final destination, as soon as possible or on a later date that suits you, if seats are available;

• a refund within 7 days for the part of the journey you haven't flown, and for any part you have flown if the trip no longer makes sense, with a free flight back to where you started if needed.

You can only pick one of the two, but compensation can come on top of either when the conditions described above are met. Take a flight from Paris to Nice, a route Air France flies several times a day. If it is cancelled the evening before departure, for a reason within Air France's control, you might choose a new flight and take the next available seat. If that seat gets you to Nice 3 hours late, you may also be entitled to €250 under EC 261.

You can claim compensation directly from Air France or through a specialist like AirHelp, which handles the whole process for you.

Claiming with AirHelp

We handle everything for you, from start to finish so it’s as easy as possible to get your money.

That last step is where most of our work happens. In 2025, 58% of the valid claims AirHelp filed were initially rejected, or received no response at all. That's an average across all the airlines in our data, with considerable variation between them. The reasons given often included bad weather or air traffic control restrictions, even when there was no supporting information on record.

So we follow up when an airline doesn't reply, check the reason it gave against flight, weather and air traffic data, and where a valid claim is still refused we can take it to court. You pay only if we recover your compensation.

When a claim goes to court, the legal costs and the risk of losing are ours. We work with local legal specialists in more than 30 countries, so we can bring your claim in the country where it stands the best chance, among those where the law allows it to be brought.

The right to Air France compensation for a disrupted flight depends on the airline’s responsibility. Airlines are not required to compensate passengers in cases of extraordinary circumstances, meaning situations beyond the airline's control. These include severe weather conditions, medical emergencies, airport staff strikes, political instability, bird strikes, acts of sabotage, security risks… you get the idea.

If you’re still unsure, the table below helps clarify when you might be eligible for compensation:

Under extraordinary circumstances, compensation is therefore off the table. However, other rights still apply, such as the right to care and assistance during your wait and, if applicable, the right to a ticket refund.

Are strikes an extraordinary circumstance?

If your Air France flight is cancelled or delayed because of a strike, the first thing to find out is who was on strike, because that decides whether compensation is possible.

When Air France's own employees, such as its pilots, cabin crew or ground staff, stop work, the disruption is generally the airline's responsibility under current EU rules. You may then be entitled to compensation, as for any other cancellation or delay.

When the strike is by people outside Air France, such as air traffic controllers or airport staff, things change. A typical example in France is a strike by air traffic controllers: the French civil aviation authority (DGAC) can ask airlines to reduce their schedules in the days before the strike, so your flight may be cancelled in advance. A strike of this kind usually counts as an extraordinary circumstance, so compensation is generally not owed. You still keep your other rights, though: assistance while you wait and, if your flight is cancelled, the choice between a refund and a new flight.

Our guide to Air France strike compensation goes through each case in more detail.