Compensation for Geneva Airport Delays and Flight Cancellations

Because Geneva Airport (GVA) is situated in the EU, the travellers passing through it it are very likely to be protected by a law known as EC 261, the European air passenger rights regulation. In the UK, there is a similar law known as UK 261. There may even be cases where you could be covered by both.

According to these laws, if you had a flight delay, cancellation, or overbooking at Geneva Airport, you have rights! The law specifies the care airlines must provide you in such a situation. Plus, when the airline is responsible for the delay, the law lays out the amount of compensation passengers are owed — up to €600 per personin the EU or £520 in the UK. You usually have up to 3 years to claim it too.

It doesn’t matter where you are from, only where you flew and whether it was with a UK or EU airline.

Are you Protected by EC 261?

Airport delays are stressful, both on your mind and your wallet. The good news is that because of EU Regulation EC 261, you might be able to claim up to £520 compensation (€600 in the EU) if your flights are delayed by 3 or more hours.

There is one notable exception when it comes to delays. If there are extraordinary circumstances involved, airlines don’t have to pay compensation for a flight delay. Extraordinary circumstances are situations outside of the airline’s control. A good example is something like unsafe weather conditions at Geneva Airport, or an air traffic control issue. Because the airline didn’t cause the delay, they can’t be expected to pay out for it.

Another point to note, the law sees a delay as the time you finally arrived at your destination compared to the landing time written on your ticket. This is important for delayed flights from Geneva Airport, because it’s not actually how long you were kept waiting in the departures lounge that counts. For compensation at least, it’s the amount of time between when you were supposed to land and when you actually landed at your final destination that matters.

You can learn more about flight delay compensation here.

EU regulation, EC 261, as well as UK 261, empowers passengers when there are Geneva Airport cancellations. By law, your airline must offer you an alternative flight to your destination — or a refund, if that's what you'd prefer.

In addition, you might be owed up to £520 (€600) in compensation if the cancellations were announced less than 2 weeks before you were due to depart.

There are some important exceptions, such as if your airline managed to find you an alternative flight that arrived at a similar time to your original. Or if Geneva Airport cancelled flights rather than the airline — as that means your airline wasn't actually responsible for the cancellation. These types of examples are termed extraordinary circumstances, and include situations like an air traffic control strike, unsafe flying conditions at Geneva Airport, or anything outside of an airline's control.

You can read more about flight cancellation compensation here.

Table shows values in € as specified in EC 261

Some exceptions may need to be taken into account. The easiest way to be sure of what you’re owed, is to use our free compensation check.

Sure, delays or flight cancellations are anything but ideal. But for your peace of mind, here’s what you should do if it happens to you: