The European Union has long had penalties for airlines whose flights are late or cancelled; now it’s adding sanctions for flights that leave too early without sufficient notice.
The new protection was added in a ruling by the EU’s top court, which said that if a flight is moved up by more than an hour within 14 days of take-off, passengers are eligible for the same level of compensation that the EU’s rule 261 provides.
Those penalties are scaled by distance, from €250 for flights of 1,500km or less up to €600 for flights over 3,500km. They apply to all flights originating in the EU, no matter the airline’s home base. The UK still has EU261 penalties in its books, but the extension to earlier flights will not apply there.
The Court of Justice’s ruling specified that “Where a flight has been brought forward in this way, passengers are unable to use their time as they wish and to organize their trip or holiday in line with their expectations.”
