It’s a particular and familiar type of dread. You’re waiting at the airport gate and word comes through of a 30-minute delay to take-off.
On its own not a huge inconvenience, but you quickly start wondering whether it’s a precursor to a longer holdup, or the flight being cancelled.
It was a situation I found myself in a couple of weeks ago flying back from Brussels to Dublin for a weekend. In Ryanair’s defence, a storm had blown in over the Belgian capital that morning, throwing things off course.
After moving gates three times we were stuck waiting in a small, depressing corner of Brussels Airport I hadn’t known even existed. Barely any seats, no shops in sight. You know the sort of spot.
The skies above cleared up pretty early, but a shortage of buses to shuttle people to the runway delayed everyone getting away for several hours.
You’re due at least €250 compensation from the airline if the delay stretches beyond three hours, with exemptions for extraordinary circumstances. I started to enjoy watching the clock tick towards our possible payout. The idea of clawing a few hundred quid back from Michael O’Leary should please even the most frustrated traveller.
You can thank European Union regulation 261 if you have ever received a windfall for a delayed or cancelled flight. The air passenger rights legislation dates back to 2004 and has been the subject of multiple court battles since then about its scope.
A major revision of the EU rules was agreed in recent weeks, more than a decade after reforms to clarify aspects of the obligations were proposed. Compensation was broadly kept at the same rates, despite a huge amount of push and pull during negotiations.
The union’s 27 governments had initially been okay with watering down passenger rights, so that people would only be able to claim compensation for delays beyond four hours. Though they would receive €300 at that point under the changes.
However, the European Parliament managed to safeguard the existing three-hour limit in the final version of the overhaul.
Internal correspondence seen by The Irish Times shows airlines made a concerted push to influence the talks.
Three trade associations who together represent the entire European industry wrote to the transport ministers of each EU state, warning against giving too many concessions to passengers.
The industry said a failure to extend the limit to four hours would result in huge costs to airlines.
“We are deeply concerned that these suggested compromises represent a significant shift,” the November 25th, 2025, letter said.
The European airline associations said the results would be stark: “A weakened airline sector that will be obliged to recover its increasing costs through higher fares, reduced economic viability of routes, especially those to and from peripheral and underdeveloped areas and islands”.
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The letter was signed by Airlines for Europe, a trade group representing the majority of the industry, including Ryanair and Aer Lingus, the European Regions Airlines Association and the International Air Transport Association.
Emails show Aer Lingus was making the same points to Irish officials in Brussels.
“The reformed law must balance passenger protection with operational realities and affordability,” the Irish airline’s director of corporate affairs Niall Timlin wrote, in correspondence obtained using the Freedom of Information Act.
Research commissioned by the trade body showed passengers valued reaching their destination quickly over compensation, Aer Lingus told transport officials involved in EU negotiations.
In a paper circulated to national governments, Airlines for Europe pushed back on a range of punter-friendly changes put forward by MEPs.
Allowing passengers to print paper boarding passes, rather than needing to download them on to their phones, would “undermine the operational efficiency on which affordable air travel depends,” it said.
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Thankfully for the average passenger, the European Parliament held the line on compensation rights.
The updated EU rules will also make it easier for people to know they may be due money back. Airlines will have to notify passengers of their rights and set out clear instructions about how to submit a request for compensation within four days of a delayed flight.
In future the price of flights will have to clearly display the cost of carry-on baggage at the outset. Airlines will also no longer be able to deny passengers boarding on the return leg of a flight, if for some reason the person didn’t travel on the outbound plane.
What about my Ryanair flight that was delayed back in May?
After studying the EU rules again and double checking the delay was indeed past the three-hour mark, I sent in my request. “Your flight was delayed due to adverse weather conditions, outside of the control of Ryanair”. Compensation request denied. Typical.