Some airlines protect passenger rights more strictly than others, as the Flightright Index shows.Image: KEYSTONE
A passenger rights portal has rated 20 European airlines. The results hold some surprises.
June 3, 2026, 10:00 p.mJune 3, 2026, 10:00 p.m
Laura Helbig / t-online
Anyone who flies on vacation or is traveling on business knows the uneasy feeling when looking at the scoreboard: delayed. Or worse: deleted. But not all airlines deal with such situations in the same way – some are much more reliable than others, some pay compensation quickly, others make passengers wait for weeks.
The Flightright Index 2026 now gives travelers clear guidance. The passenger rights portal examined 20 of the largest European airlines over a period of six months – from November 2025 to May 2026 – in three categories: reliability, payment behavior and customer opinions. The result shows clear differences and some surprises.
The complete ranking at a glance (the worst first; 1 is the worst rating, 5 the best):
The bottom performers: Aer Lingus, Air Europa and Vueling
Aer Lingus performed worst – with an overall rating of just 1.79. The Irish airline’s payment behavior is particularly weak, and was rated with just one star. The situation is similarly bad for Air Europa and Vueling: Both also only receive one star for payment behavior and thus end up in places 19 and 18. This means for travelers in the event of a problem: Anyone who flies with these airlines and claims compensation has to be prepared for a long and arduous process.
Despite its reputation as a premium carrier, KLM also only comes in 17th place – with the weakest reliability rating of the entire ranking (1.5 stars). Lufthansa is in 13th place, the low-cost airlines Ryanair (16th place) and Wizz Air (15th place) – at least as far as the overall rating is concerned.
The best: Austrian, Eurowings and Air Baltic
Austrian Airlines takes first place with an overall rating of 3.04. The Austrian airline is particularly impressive in terms of customer opinions (3.12) and payment behavior (2.5). Eurowings and Air Baltic also performed solidly – both achieved balanced values in all three categories without any significant outliers. Finnair and British Airways round out the top five, with British Airways achieving by far the best customer satisfaction score of the entire ranking at 3.42.
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