Compensation for delayed or cancelled Wizz Air flights

On a delayed or cancelled Wizz Air flight, how far you were flying matters more than most passengers expect. As a rule, you may be entitled to compensation of up to €600 per person under EU regulation EC 261 if you reach your final destination 3 hours late or more, or if you learn that your flight is cancelled less than 14 days before departure, as long as the cause wasn't an extraordinary circumstance. Distance largely decides the amount, and it also shapes some of your other rights, such as how soon the airline must provide meals while you wait.

To check your own case, enter the details in AirHelp's free compensation checker and see whether you qualify for Wizz Air compensation. If you claim with us, it's no win, no fee.

If Wizz Air moves you to another flight, follow that one too, since what counts is when you finally arrive. Our Wizz Air flight tracker guide explains how to add any flight to the AirHelp app, get live alerts and keep a record of your journeys.

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.

• After 1 hour: what you can expect →

• After 2 hours: meals and a hotel if needed →

• 3 hours late on arrival: when compensation applies →

• After 5 hours: the option of a refund →

After 1 hour: what you can expect

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.

After 2 hours: meals and a hotel if needed

If your Wizz Air 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.

So the cause of the delay doesn’t affect this help, but the length of your Wizz Air flight does. The distance sets how long you have to wait at the airport before the airline must provide it:

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

• 3 hours for flights within the EU of more than 1,500 km, and for other flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km;

• 4 hours for flights of more than 3,500 km between the EU and a non-EU country.

For assistance, what counts is how late your flight departs; for compensation, it's how late you reach your final destination.

3 hours late on arrival: when compensation applies

If your Wizz Air 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.

Arriving 3 hours late isn't the whole story, though. Under current EU rules, compensation is ruled out if the airline can show that the delay was caused by an extraordinary circumstance, one that couldn't have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.

After 5 hours: the option of 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.

Wizz Air 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.

To see what the 1,500 km line means in practice, take two Wizz Air flights from Budapest that both reach their destination 3 hours late:

• Budapest to Brussels Charleroi (about 1,130 km) is under 1,500 km, so you may be entitled to €250 under EC 261.

• Budapest to Madrid (about 1,980 km) is a flight within the EU of more than 1,500 km, so you may be entitled to €400 under EC 261.

The delay is the same, and only the distance sets the two amounts apart. On these routes, arriving 4 or 5 hours late instead of 3 wouldn't change them either.

Wizz Air 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 a Wizz Air 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 a cancellation qualifies for compensation

In the event of flight cancellation, you are eligible for Wizz Air 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.

The time limits in the table work in both directions: a replacement flight that leaves too early counts as much as one that lands too late. Take a Wizz Air flight from Bucharest to Bologna, about 1,170 km, cancelled four days before departure for a reason within the airline's control:

• The new flight leaves 2 hours earlier and lands at about your original arrival time. As it departs more than an hour early, you may be entitled to €250 under EC 261, although the amount can be halved to €125, because you still arrive within 2 hours of the original time.

• The new flight leaves and lands 3 hours later than your original one. That's beyond the 2-hour limit for arrivals, so you may be entitled to the full €250 under EC 261.

Refund, rebooking or both?

When Wizz Air 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 Wizz Air flight from Warsaw to Barcelona that is cancelled two days before departure, for a reason within the airline's control. If the first free seat is on the following day's flight and you take it, you'll reach Barcelona about a day later than planned, so you may also be entitled to €400 under EC 261.

You can claim compensation directly from Wizz Air 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 Wizz Air 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.

Can you claim compensation after a strike?

If a strike disrupts your Wizz Air flight, whether you can claim compensation depends on who is on strike.

When the strike is by air traffic controllers or airport staff, it's normally treated as an extraordinary circumstance, and in that case compensation isn't owed. You still have the right to meals and, if needed, a hotel while you wait, and if your flight is cancelled, you can choose between a refund and a new flight.

A strike by Wizz Air's own staff, such as its pilots or cabin crew, is different. Under current EU rules, it is treated as part of running the airline, so you may be entitled to compensation, as for any other delay or cancellation.

Our guide to Wizz Air strike compensation explains your rights in more detail.