If your flight from a Romanian airport — Henri Coandă in Bucharest, Avram Iancu in Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara or any other — is cancelled, EU Regulation 261/2004 gives you two distinct rights. First, an immediate choice between a full refund of the ticket and re-routing to your destination. Second, a fixed compensation of 250, 400 or 600 euro on top — but only if the airline notified you less than 14 days before departure and the cause was within its control. This page sorts both pieces out for a Romanian passenger, with a checklist for anyone standing at the gate right now, the Romanian institutions that actually handle the claim, and the three-year prescription deadline that decides how long you have to act.
What to do right now: a checklist for anyone stuck at the airport
If the flight has just been cancelled and you are still in the terminal, work through these steps in order.
- Go to the airline desk or its customer service line. It is the operating carrier — not the travel agent, not the airport, not AACR — that has to sort the situation out under EU 261. The Romanian airport authority will not issue a refund, and ANPC cannot give you a seat on another flight.
- Ask for re-routing to your destination as soon as possible, or a refund if you prefer to drop the trip. The choice is yours, not the airline’s. If you are travelling for business or onward to a connecting cruise or wedding, re-routing on a competitor at the airline’s expense is on the table.
- Refuse vouchers and points. You have a clear right under article 8 of EU 261 to a refund in cash or back to the original payment card within seven days. A voucher offered as a "favour" is rarely a favour — it locks money inside that airline and waives nothing on its side.
- Do not sign anything you have not read fully. Refuse any paper that "settles" the case, releases the airline or converts the claim into a goodwill voucher. A signed waiver may later be enforceable against you before a Judecătoria.
- Demand meals, drinks and a hotel if needed. If the wait stretches or runs overnight, the airline must cover it under the duty of care in article 9. If staff refuse, buy reasonable food and book a reasonable hotel yourself and keep every receipt — those receipts come back as a reimbursable cost.
- Document everything. Photograph the departures board showing "Anulat" or "Cancelled", save the airline SMS and email, note the names of the staff you spoke with, and write down what was said. In a later dispute, this documentation is what gives ANPC, AACR or a Romanian court something to work with.
- Do not rush the compensation claim at the counter. The 250–600 euro fixed compensation is not settled at the airport. You ask the airline for it calmly afterwards, in writing. Under article 2517 of the Romanian Civil Code, the prescription period is three years — there is no need to commit on the spot.
One detail is worth highlighting because it traps many passengers: if you accept a refund of the ticket, you simultaneously refuse re-routing. The moment you take the money for the ticket, the airline’s obligation to get you onward and to provide meals or a hotel ends. That can be the right decision. Just make it deliberately, not under pressure at a queue.
A refund is not compensation — and you can have both
This is the most frequently confused point in any cancelled-flight case, and the one airlines exploit most often. Two distinct rights are at play.
A refund under article 8 returns the ticket price you paid. That figure is the same whether your ticket cost 80 euro or 800. It is a contractual restitution, not a penalty.
Compensation under article 7 is something else entirely: a fixed flat amount — 250, 400 or 600 euro — for the disruption of having the flight cancelled. It has no relation to the ticket price and is owed in addition to the refund.
The result: when a flight is cancelled, a Romanian passenger may be entitled to both at once. Getting the ticket money back does not close the matter. The airline that pays the refund and announces that the case is "settled" is wrong, and a Judecătoria will treat the two rights as separate. If you keep the wording of any settlement offer narrow — explicitly a refund of the ticket only — your compensation claim survives intact.
The three choices on offer when a flight is cancelled
Article 8 of EU 261 obliges the airline to offer you a choice between three options. You pick — not them.
- A refund of the ticket price for the part of the journey not flown, and for any legs already flown if the journey has become pointless because of the cancellation (for example, you flew Bucharest to Frankfurt only to learn that the Frankfurt to Tokyo leg is cancelled and Tokyo is the only destination that mattered).
- Re-routing to the destination at the earliest opportunity, under comparable transport conditions. The airline must put you on the next available flight — including a competitor — at its own cost.
- Re-routing at a later date that suits you, subject to seat availability. Useful when you can postpone the trip and want to avoid the chaos at the airport.
The choice is yours regardless of the cause. Even when the cancellation was triggered by a closure of Romanian airspace, an air traffic control strike or extreme weather, you still pick between refund and re-routing. The cause only affects the separate question of the fixed compensation, which is governed by the 14-day rule below.
The 14-day rule — when fixed compensation actually applies
This is the rule that decides whether a Romanian passenger gets the 250 to 600 euro fixed compensation, and it is simpler than airlines make it sound. Everything hangs on when the airline told you the flight was cancelled.
| When did the notice come? | Fixed compensation? | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| At least 14 days before departure | No | — |
| 7 to 13 days before departure | Yes, unless re-routing kept you near schedule | New departure no more than 2h earlier, arrival no more than 4h later |
| Less than 7 days before departure | Yes, unless re-routing kept you near schedule | New departure no more than 1h earlier, arrival no more than 2h later |
Read it like this. Notice at least 14 days ahead removes the fixed compensation entirely. You still keep the refund-or-re-routing choice — but the 250 to 600 euro is gone. Notice inside 14 days triggers compensation, subject to the re-routing close-to-schedule exception above. The Court of Justice has consistently treated late cancellations as equivalent to long delays for purposes of compensation — that line of case law starts with Sturgeon (joined cases C-402/07 and C-432/07, 2009), which established that delayed and cancelled flights generate the same right where the passenger arrives more than three hours late.
The practical implication for a Romanian passenger: if the airline e-mail landed in your inbox 15 days before the flight, the compensation claim will not survive at a Judecătoria. If it landed 12 days before — and the alternative they offered you was a re-routing the next morning — the claim is alive.
The amounts: 250, 400 and 600 euro
When the fixed compensation applies, the amount is set by the distance of the flight, not by what the ticket cost. The figures are written in euro because the regulation uses euro as the legal unit. Romanian passengers receive payment in euro or its lei equivalent at the airline’s discretion, but the claim is denominated in euro.
| Flight distance | Compensation |
|---|---|
| Up to 1,500 km | 250 euro |
| Within the EU, over 1,500 km | 400 euro |
| Other flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km | 400 euro |
| Flights outside the EU over 3,500 km | 600 euro |
A practical reading for Romania-departing flights: Bucharest to Munich, Vienna or Athens falls in the 250 euro band (under 1,500 km). Bucharest to London, Paris or Madrid sits in the 400 euro band. A long-haul cancellation from Henri Coandă to New York, Dubai or Tokyo crosses into the 600 euro band.
If the airline gets you to your destination on a re-routing with limited delay, the compensation can in some cases be halved — read the conditions in our EU 261 2026 delay thresholds guide and our step-by-step guide on how to file a flight delay claim from Romania .
When the cause blocks the claim — extraordinary circumstances
Even when notice came late, the fixed compensation can fall away if the airline can prove the cancellation was caused by extraordinary circumstances — events outside its control that could not have been prevented even with all reasonable measures.
The CJEU has built a clear line of case law on what counts and what does not. In Wallentin-Hermann (C-549/07, 2008), the Court ruled that a technical defect on the aircraft, even one that surfaces unexpectedly during a turnaround, is not extraordinary — such defects are inherent to the normal operation of an airline. In Krüsemann (C-195/17, 2018), the Court confirmed that a wildcat strike by the airline’s own crew is not extraordinary either, because labour relations are within the carrier’s sphere of responsibility. By contrast, severe meteorological conditions, an air traffic control closure, a security alert or a foreign airport shutdown generally qualify.
| Cause | Within airline’s control? | Compensation normally? |
|---|---|---|
| Technical fault on the aircraft | Yes | Yes |
| Crew missing or arriving late | Yes | Yes |
| The airline’s own staff strike | Yes | Yes |
| Too few bookings, unprofitable flight | Yes | Yes |
| Extreme weather | No | No |
| Air traffic control strike, security closure | No | No |
Two things to keep in mind. First, "technical fault" is not a magic word — the airline must prove the specific fault was genuinely extraordinary, not an everyday maintenance issue. Second, the burden of proof rests on the airline, not on the passenger. A vague reply citing "operational reasons" does not discharge that burden, and a Romanian Judecătoria will require documentary evidence — incident reports, AACR notifications, NOTAMs — before accepting an extraordinary-circumstances defence.
The duty of care — meals, drinks and a hotel
Alongside compensation, EU 261 imposes a separate duty of care under article 9. It is tied to the waiting time, not to the cause, and therefore never falls away — not even when extreme weather is genuinely the trigger. While you wait for a re-routing, the airline must provide:
- meals and drinks in reasonable proportion to the wait,
- two phone calls or equivalent communication,
- a hotel and transport to and from it if you have to wait overnight or substantially shift to the next day.
If the airline offers nothing on the ground at Otopeni, Cluj or Timișoara — buy reasonable food and book a reasonable hotel, and keep every receipt so you can claim the cost back afterwards. The duty of care continues as long as you are waiting for re-routing. If you instead take the refund, it ends, because you have then declined the airline’s onward transport.
How a Romanian passenger collects the compensation
The right to compensation is established by EU 261. How you collect is governed by Romanian procedure, and there are three escalation routes after the first written complaint to the airline.
The first stop is always a written claim to the airline, typically a complaint form on its website or a formal letter to the carrier’s claims address. Give the airline 30 days to respond.
If the airline refuses or stays silent, the next stop is ANPC (Autoritatea Națională pentru Protecția Consumatorilor). ANPC handles consumer complaints generally and can pressure airlines with a Romanian commercial presence into a settlement. The second institutional route is AACR (Autoritatea Aeronautică Civilă Română), the National Enforcement Body designated under article 16 of EU 261/2004 for Romania. AACR will not order the airline to pay you directly, but a formal AACR finding that your right is established carries significant weight in any subsequent court case.
The third — and usually the most decisive — route is a civil claim at the local Judecătoria. For amounts under 10,000 RON (which covers every individual EU 261 claim up to 600 euro plus interest and costs), the simplified procedure under article 1026 of the New Code of Civil Procedure applies: low court fee, no mandatory lawyer, judgment usually inside 30 to 60 days. The CJEU confirmed in Rehder (C-204/08, 2009) that a passenger may sue at the departure airport or the destination airport, so a Romanian passenger flying Bucharest to Paris can bring the action in Bucharest even if the operating carrier is French and based in Paris.
For the procedure in detail, see our step-by-step guide on how to claim flight compensation from Romania and our DIY versus claim agency comparison to weigh the trade-offs honestly. For the native Romanian version of this same article, see our ghid despre compensația zbor anulat .
The three-year prescription period in Romania
Romania applies a three-year prescription period to EU 261 claims, under article 2517 of the Romanian Civil Code. This is the general limitation period for consumer obligations and the one Romanian courts have consistently applied to air-passenger compensation cases. The CJEU confirmed in Cuadrench Moré (C-139/11, 2013) that national limitation periods govern EU 261 claims — there is no uniform EU-wide deadline.
The practical consequence: a flight cancelled on 10 March 2024 must be the subject of a court claim filed by 10 March 2027 at the latest. After that date, even a clearly meritorious claim will be rejected by a Judecătoria as time-barred. The three-year clock runs from the date of the cancelled flight, not from the date of the airline’s first refusal and not from the last round of correspondence.
This window is materially shorter than in some other EU jurisdictions — Poland runs ten years generally, Spain five — so a Romanian passenger has less time than a Polish or Spanish one. If you are approaching the deadline and the airline is still stalling, the safer move is to file directly at the Judecătoria rather than continue exchanging emails.
For the consolidated text of the regulation itself, see Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 on EUR-Lex , in particular article 5 on cancellations and article 7 on compensation amounts.
Get the claim moving without the paperwork
If your flight has just been cancelled and you would rather not chase the airline yourself — especially if the carrier is non-EU, notoriously slow to settle, or has already issued a flat refusal — a specialised passenger-rights service handles the entire procedure on a no-win, no-fee basis. The service files the claim, escalates through the regulatory route and litigates if needed; if the claim succeeds, the service keeps a commission (typically around a quarter); if it fails, you pay nothing.
Check your cancelled flight in two minutes with AirHelp — no win, no fee
This is not legal advice
This page is based on published EU sources and Romanian institutional practice. For advice on your individual case, contact ANPC (Autoritatea Națională pentru Protecția Consumatorilor) or AACR (Autoritatea Aeronautică Civilă Română), the National Enforcement Body for air passenger rights in Romania, or consult a lawyer authorised to practise in Romania.
Sources and further reading
- EUR-Lex — Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 consolidated text , article 5 (cancellations) and article 7 (compensation)
- CJEU Sturgeon, joined cases C-402/07 and C-432/07 (2009) — equivalence of long delay and cancellation for compensation
- CJEU Wallentin-Hermann C-549/07 (2008) — technical defects are not extraordinary circumstances
- CJEU Krüsemann C-195/17 (2018) — wildcat strike by airline’s own crew is not extraordinary
- CJEU Cuadrench Moré C-139/11 (2013) — national prescription periods apply to EU 261 claims
- CJEU Rehder C-204/08 (2009) — jurisdiction at departure or destination airport
- AACR — Autoritatea Aeronautică Civilă Română (National Enforcement Body in Romania)
- ANPC — Autoritatea Națională pentru Protecția Consumatorilor
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