Turkish Airlines flight compensation: delayed or cancelled

Did you experience a disruption on your flight with Turkish Airlines? Select the relevant section below to learn about your rights in the event of a delay, cancellation, denied boarding, or missed connection.

Turkish Airlines is not an EU/EEA airline, so these rules generally apply to flights departing from the EU/EEA. The route and the operating carrier always decide a specific case.

As a third-country carrier, flights operated by Turkish Airlines are normally covered by Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 only where the flight departs from an airport in the EU/EEA; flights into the EU/EEA from a third country (Istanbul–Stockholm, for example) are not covered where Turkish Airlines is the operating air carrier. The route and the actual operating air carrier are always decisive in the individual case, not every flight the airline operates is automatically covered.

The Turkish Airlines group includes its wholly owned subsidiary AJET (founded in 2023, operations begun in March 2024, holding its own Turkish AOC TR 028), as well as SunExpress/Güneş Ekspres (a 50/50 joint venture with Lufthansa, holding its own AOC TR 003) and a 49 per cent stake in Air Albania. AJET and SunExpress/Güneş Ekspres hold their own Turkish AOCs, so where a claim arises it has to be established which company actually operated the flight.

Turkish Airlines is a Turkish carrier, and EU261 normally applies to its flights departing from the EU/EEA. The airline's passenger-rights brochure, however, describes the Turkish passenger rules issued by the civil aviation authority SHGM (Turkish national rules, not EU261). According to the brochure, passengers with a confirmed booking who checked in on time (at the latest 60 minutes before departure on international flights) can, for a delay of at least two hours, receive among other things free calls and drinks and a meal depending on the wait, and for delays of eight hours or more it states that accommodation and transport between the hotel and the airport are provided free of charge. As contact channels the brochure lists a form on turkishairlines.com, telephone/WhatsApp +90 850 333 0 849 and the @TK_HelpDesk accounts on X and Facebook. According to the airline's board activity report, AJET is wholly owned by Turkish Airlines and based at Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen and Ankara Esenboğa, SunExpress is a 50/50 venture with Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines owns 49 per cent of Air Albania, and according to its fact sheet Istanbul is a strategic hub. Check which company operated your flight.