Cancelled flight at Christmas and New Year: rerouting, hotel and compensation

The rules are the same in December as in May, but when most departures are full, the airline's next own flight may be days away. That raises the question of what ‘at the earliest opportunity’ demands. The basics are in cancelled flight and rerouting at the earliest opportunity.

The airline must look beyond its timetable. An airline that wants to avoid compensation by citing an extraordinary circumstance does not, in principle, do enough by offering its own next flight if that arrives only the day after the planned arrival. It must use all available resources and look for other direct or indirect flights, possibly with other carriers, inside or outside its alliance (C-74/19, paragraph 59). The exceptions: nothing better existed, or it would have meant unreasonable sacrifices given its capacity (operative part, point 3).

The airline must inform you of everything and prove the timing. It must give full information on all the options in Article 8(1) and bears the burden of proving re-routing was at the earliest opportunity (C-354/18, points 3 and 4 of the operative part; a denied boarding case, but point 4 is worded generally for Article 8(1)(b)).

The Regulation is silent on tickets you buy yourself. According to the Commission's interpretative guidelines, which are not binding, an airline that does not offer re-routing at the earliest opportunity under comparable conditions must reimburse the cost of an alternative flight you incurred. If the airline can show that it contacted you (where you had provided contact details) and intended to arrange re-routing, it may refuse to reimburse extra costs where you arranged it yourself anyway. It may therefore pay to tell the airline first if you can, and to keep everything.

Lost income can be the subject of further compensation (Art. 12(1), C-354/18), see Article 12. From 23 October 2027 the rules on own re-routing and hotel length change (Regulation (EU) 2026/2202).

On a cancellation you may, under Article 5(1)(c), be entitled to compensation under Article 7 unless you were informed at least two weeks before departure. Between two weeks and seven days before, the exemption requires re-routing that departs no more than two hours before and arrives less than four hours after the schedule; less than seven days before, no more than one hour before and less than two hours after. The amount is €250, €400 or €600 by distance (Art. 7(1)).

The cause matters. The airline can avoid compensation if it proves extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even with all reasonable measures (Art. 5(3)); see the airline cites extraordinary circumstances.

A delayed re-routed flight can give a new right. If you accepted re-routing and the re-routed flight itself arrives three hours or more late, you may claim compensation for that too, where the same airline operates it (C-832/18, operative part, point 1).