If your flight from Athens, Thessaloniki, Heraklion, or any other Greek airport was delayed by three hours or more, cancelled without adequate notice, or if you were denied boarding against your will, you are almost certainly entitled to financial compensation. Greece is an EU member state, which means EU Regulation 261/2004 is the law - and it gives passengers some of the strongest air-travel rights in the world.
What EU Regulation 261/2004 Covers
EU261/2004 applies to you if:
- Your flight departs from any airport in Greece, regardless of which airline operates it
- Your flight arrives in Greece and is operated by an EU-based airline (Aegean, Olympic, Ryanair, EasyJet, Wizz Air, Lufthansa, Air France, etc.)
It does not cover non-EU carriers flying into Greece - so a Delta or Emirates flight landing in Athens from outside the EU falls outside the regulation.
The regulation covers three types of disruption: long delays at your final destination, outright cancellations, and denied boarding (including being bumped due to overbooking).
Compensation Thresholds
Compensation is calculated by route distance, not flight duration:
| Route distance | Minimum delay at destination | Compensation |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1,500 km (e.g. Athens–Rome, Athens–Thessaloniki) | 2 hours | €250 |
| 1,500–3,500 km (e.g. Athens–London, Athens–Copenhagen) | 3 hours | €400 |
| Over 3,500 km (e.g. Athens–New York, Athens–Dubai) | 4 hours | €600 |
If the airline re-routes you and you arrive within two hours (short-haul) or three hours (long-haul) of your original scheduled arrival, they can reduce the payment by 50%.
Important: the clock runs to your arrival at the final destination, not to the delay on the runway in Athens.
Your Right to Care While Waiting
Even if the airline successfully argues extraordinary circumstances and avoids paying compensation, they must still provide care once the delay passes two hours:
- Meals and refreshments proportionate to the wait
- Two free telephone calls, emails, or faxes
- Hotel accommodation if an overnight stay becomes necessary
- Return transport between the hotel and airport
If the airline refuses to provide care, keep receipts for reasonable expenses (meals, phone calls, one night’s accommodation) - you can claim these back separately.
What the Airline Can Claim as “Extraordinary Circumstances”
Airlines routinely cite extraordinary circumstances to avoid paying. These claims are often rejected by courts and the regulator. Legitimate extraordinary circumstances include:
- Genuine severe weather affecting flight safety
- Air traffic control strikes or restrictions outside the airline’s control
- Airport security threats
Not extraordinary circumstances:
- Technical faults from inadequate maintenance
- Staff shortages or scheduling errors
- Overbooking (denied boarding is always compensable)
- Strikes by the airline’s own cabin or ground crew
How to File a Claim
Step 1: Contact the airline directly
Send a written claim - email with read receipt is ideal - citing EU Regulation 261/2004, your flight number, route, date, and the delay at your final destination. Include your boarding pass and booking confirmation. Airlines have 21 days to respond under Greek consumer law.
Keep a record of every communication.
Step 2: Escalate to the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority
If the airline rejects your claim or ignores it, escalate to the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA), known in Greek as the Υπηρεσία Πολιτικής Αεροπορίας (ΥΠΑ). The HCAA is Greece’s national enforcement body for EU261 and handles complaints online via its official website (ypa.gr).
Provide your correspondence with the airline, booking documents, and any evidence of the delay (departure board photos, text messages from the airline, boarding passes).
Step 3: Use a claims management service
If you would rather not handle the paperwork yourself - especially for cross-border claims against non-Greek carriers - a claims management service does the work for you on a no-win, no-fee basis.
What to Collect at the Airport
The more documentation you have, the stronger your claim:
- Boarding passes (physical or screenshot)
- Booking confirmation with flight number and booked fare
- Screenshot of the departures board showing the delayed time
- Any SMS or email notifications the airline sent about the delay
- Receipts for meals, transport, and accommodation if you covered your own costs during the wait
If you were denied boarding, ask for the airline’s written statement of the reason - they are legally obliged to provide this.
Which Airlines Must Pay
Any airline operating from a Greek airport must comply with EU261. That includes every major carrier serving Greece:
- Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air - Greece’s two main national carriers, both EU-based
- Ryanair, EasyJet, Wizz Air - budget carriers with heavy Greek route networks; all EU-registered and fully covered
- Lufthansa, Air France, KLM, British Airways, Swiss, Austrian - EU legacy carriers; fully covered in both directions
- Emirates, Qatar, Etihad, Turkish Airlines - covered only when departing from a Greek airport; not covered on inbound flights into Greece
- Delta, American, United - covered only when departing from a Greek airport (e.g. the return leg of an Athens–New York itinerary)
The practical upshot: if your disrupted flight departed from Athens, Heraklion, Thessaloniki, Rhodes, Corfu, Mykonos, or any other Greek airport, you are almost certainly covered regardless of airline.
Time Limits for Filing a Claim
Do not wait indefinitely. Deadlines vary depending on how you claim:
- Airline directly - Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air accept claims up to two years after the disruption. Some airlines set shorter windows in their conditions of carriage; always check the airline’s own policy.
- Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA) - there is no statutory deadline for HCAA complaints, but the older the incident, the harder documentation becomes to gather. File within six months of the disruption for the best chance of a clear paper trail.
- Greek courts - Greek civil law allows you to pursue a claim for up to three years after the disruption date, giving you a meaningful safety net if an airline or the HCAA fails to resolve the matter.
In practice: file your claim to the airline within a week of the disruption while your emails, boarding passes, and receipts are easy to locate. If the airline rejects or ignores the claim, escalate to the HCAA immediately rather than letting it sit.
Domestic Greek Flights
EU261 also covers domestic Greek routes such as Athens–Heraklion (OA 266) or Athens–Rhodes, as both airports are within the EU. Given that Aegean and Olympic Air dominate these routes, and that Aegean is an EU carrier, claims for domestic disruptions follow the same process above.
A three-hour delay from Athens is frustrating. The compensation you are owed - up to €600 per passenger - makes it worth an hour of paperwork.
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