Compensation for Zurich Airport Delays and Flight Cancellations

Because Zurich Airport (ZRH) is situated in the EU, travelers from anywhere in the world are very likely to be protected by a law known as EU Regulation No. 261/2004.

This means that if you had a flight delay, cancellation or overbooking at Zurich Airport, you do have rights! The law specifies the care airlines must provide. Plus, when the airline is responsible for the delay, EC 261 lays out the amount of compensation passengers are owed — up to $700 (€600) per person. 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 an 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 $700 (€600) compensation if your flights are delayed by 3 or more hours.

There is one notable exception when it comes to Zurich Airport 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 Zurich 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 Zurich 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, empowers passengers when there are Zurich 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 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 Zurich Airport canceled 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 Zurich Airport, or anything outside of an airline's control.

You can read more about flight cancellation compensation here.

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: