Reimbursement and Compensation: Ryanair

Regardless of whether you're at home or abroad when you find out about your Ryanair flight cancellation, you're going to have a lot of questions and concerns. The first thing to know is that Ryanair should find you a new flight, or offer you a full refund.

But because flight cancellations almost always play havoc with your travel plans, you should check whether you're also entitled to claim Ryanair canceled flight compensation to help make up for the disruption.

Under EU regulations, Ryanair should pay passengers up to £520 per person when they cancel flights at late notice — that is, any flight cancellation less than 14 days before it was due to depart.

Exceptions:
Ryanair will not have to pay compensation if they were able to offer a replacement flight with similar departure and arrival times to the original. You can check the exact requirements on our flight cancellation compensation page.

Airlines also don't have to pay compensation if extraordinary circumstances were at play. That means that if an unusual situation occurred that was outside of the airline's control but forced a cancellation, there's no Ryanair flight cancellation compensation owed. Typical examples include bad weather or a strike by air traffic control.

Whenever you're kept waiting by Ryanair flight delays, it's worth checking whether you're entitled to compensation for your time. If Ryanair is responsible for the delay, EU regulations say that passengers are owed up to £520 per person when they're delayed by 3 hours or more.

When you're claiming flight delay compensation, Ryanair will check what time the flight arrived at the final destination. That's because for flight delay claims it is the time that you arrived that is important, not the time of departure. AirHelp owns one of the most comprehensive databases of flight stats available, so we can always back up Ryanair flight delay compensation claims with the exact delay time.

Exceptions:
Airlines like Ryanair do not have to pay out compensation if there's some external reason for the delay. That means delays caused by bad weather, an incident at the airport, or air traffic control strikes are not eligible for compensation. These kind of situations are called extraordinary circumstances.

You can learn more about what is and isn't included on our flight delay compensation page.

EC 261 is the EU regulation that covers situations like flight delays, cancellations, and overbookings. It lays out the care passengers can expect from airlines in the event of any of these disruptions, and it clearly states in what situations passengers are owed compensation.

Travelers are allowed to claim for past flights under EC 261 — often you can still claim for flights in the past 3 years.

The regulation applies to all flights that depart from a European airport, but as Ryanair is a European airline, passengers are given extra protection by EC 261, and flights into Europe are covered too, even when they depart from outside the EU.

Which Ryanair Flights are Covered by EC 261?

Table shows values in € as specified in EC 261

As with any law, there are exceptions and special circumstances that can affect each specific claim, including how much compensation is owed. AirHelp makes it simple to check compensation here.

Common questions about Ryanair flight compensation

How do I claim compensation for a cancelled Ryanair flight?

You have to be proactive and initiate a claim. How to claim compensation for a cancelled flight with Ryanair is a matter of personal preference — you can either contact and try and negotiate with Ryanair directly, or use a claims company such as AirHelp to handle your claim for you.

Since Ryanair is an EU airline, you are likely protected by EU flight regulations. If your flight is eligible, you could get as much as £520 per passenger.