My rights in the event of flight cancellation

My rights in the event of flight cancellation

"For my summer holidays, I had booked a flight from Geneva to Madrid which was cancelled an hour before its scheduled departure time. Can you remind me how the regulations and travellers' rights work in such cases?

Pascal, Vaud

Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 establishes common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights. It is applicable in all European countries; Switzerland, Iceland and Norway have transposed its rules into their own legislation.

These regulations apply to passengers departing from an airport located in the territory of a Member State of the European Union or in Switzerland, Norway or Iceland, even when the destination of the flight is outside the European Union. It also applies to all passengers travelling to a Member State, if the airline operating the flight is a Community carrier and the passengers do not receive benefits or compensation and assistance in the third country from which the flight originates.

If your flight is cancelled, you are entitled to reimbursement of your ticket, as well as a return flight to your original place of departure, or re-routing to your final destination under comparable transport conditions and as quickly as possible. You may also request a meal and refreshments, or even hotel accommodation if you have to wait one or more nights, including transport from the airport.

Passengers who are the victims of a cancellation are still entitled to compensation from the air carrier, subject to the exceptions provided for in Article 5 of the above-mentioned Regulation, if the airline informs them of the problem one to two weeks in advance and offers an acceptable alternative. The amount of compensation is set at EUR 250 for all flights up to 1,500 km and EUR 400 for all intra-Community flights over 1,500 km. The compensation also amounts to EUR 400 for extra-Community flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km. For all other flights, compensation is EUR 600. However, the air carrier is not obliged to pay compensation if it can prove that the cancellation was due to extraordinary circumstances such as metrological conditions; the airline nevertheless retains its obligation to provide assistance.