EU 261 2026 delay thresholds: what changes for Romanian passengers

Under EU 261/2004, a delay of three hours on arrival at the final destination gives the right to compensation. That rule is not written into the original text of the regulation — it was set by the Court of Justice of the EU. Regulation 2026/261, the reform of the air passenger rights regulation, wants to write the delay threshold straight into the text of the law. That is a real improvement in substance. But the exact figure is still uncertain, and this page is not going to pretend otherwise. Here we go through what actually changes, what remains unsettled, and what it means for a passenger travelling through Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iași or Timișoara whose flight is delayed close to the threshold.

What the threshold looks like today

Today's three-hour rule comes from the Court of Justice ruling in the joined Sturgeon cases (C-402/07 and C-432/07, 2009). The Court decided that a long delay should be treated as equivalent to a cancelled flight when it comes to the right to compensation. Since then, the position has been clear: if you reach your final destination three hours or more after the scheduled arrival time, you have the right to 250, 400 or 600 euro depending on distance.

Two details are worth holding on to, because the reform does not change them. First, it is arrival that counts, not departure. A flight that takes off late from Henri Coandă but lands on schedule at Madrid pays nothing. Second, the threshold is a hard line: two hours and fifty minutes gives zero, three hours flat gives the full amount.

That this rule rests on case law rather than an explicit article of the regulation has always been a weakness. A rule built on a court judgment is easier for an airline to question than a rule written in black and white in the text of the law. Romanian passengers who have ever exchanged emails with a low-cost carrier's claims department know exactly how often the three-hour rule is treated as if it were a suggestion rather than binding EU law.

What the 2026 reform wants to change

The reform's stated purpose for the delay threshold is to anchor it inside the regulation itself. A threshold written explicitly into the text is harder to contest — that is an improvement in the passenger's position, whatever figure is finally chosen.

The problem is the figure. Reporting on the reform diverges depending on the source and the date:

In other words, an early negotiating position pointed toward a rise for short routes; later sources state that three hours remains. Until the final consolidated text on EUR-Lex is unambiguous, we treat the figure itself as not yet established. We update this page as soon as the picture becomes clear.

What it means for a borderline case

Because the threshold is a hard line, its exact position matters most for borderline cases. Picture a delay of three hours and ten minutes on a short flight from Bucharest to Vienna. Under today's rules it clearly grounds 250 euro of compensation. If the reform raised the limit to four hours for short routes, the same delay would fall under the threshold — and give nothing.

Here is the important thing to keep apart: a borderline case like that is decided by which set of rules applies, and that is governed by the date of the disruption.

• If your flight is disrupted now, three hours applies. A future threshold does not affect a disruption that has already occurred.
• If your flight is disrupted after the reform rules have entered into force, the threshold that then stands in the consolidated text applies.

The practical advice is the same either way: document the actual arrival time carefully. Photograph the arrivals board at Otopeni or wherever you land, keep the boarding pass and any SMS or email from the airline. When a delay sits close to a threshold, those minutes decide, and the burden of proof for the exact arrival time then becomes central.

How to handle a delay near a threshold

Because the threshold decides all or nothing, it is worth knowing how to protect your position when the delay is narrow — whether the rule is today's three hours or a future limit.

Timestamp the arrival exactly. The official arrival time is the moment at least one aircraft door opens, not the moment the wheels touch the runway and not the moment you step off the jet bridge. That difference can be several minutes, and in a borderline case those minutes decide. Photograph the arrivals screen, write down the time on the spot, and keep every message the airline sends you.

Count from the right point. It is the delay at your final destination that counts. If you travel Bucharest to Frankfurt to Buenos Aires with a connection, it is the arrival in Buenos Aires that matters, not the arrival in Frankfurt — even if the first leg ran over time. The CJEU confirmed this in Folkerts (C-11/11, 2013), which is binding on every Romanian court and every airline operating from a Romanian airport.

Do not trust the airline's first statement. An airline that records a delay just under the threshold has an obvious interest in exactly that figure. If it does not match your own documentation, you have grounds to challenge the assessment. In a dispute over a handful of minutes, it is the independent records — the arrivals screen, public flight data, your own photographs — that carry weight before a Judecătoria.

If you are facing a borderline case right now, three hours applies, and you should pursue the claim on that basis. A new threshold in Regulation 2026/261 does not change the assessment of a flight that has already disrupted you.

How a Romanian passenger actually claims

The threshold sets the right; Romanian procedure sets how you collect. The first step is a written complaint directly to the airline. If the airline refuses or stays silent for more than 30 days, you have three escalation routes available in Romania.

The first is ANPC (Autoritatea Națională pentru Protecția Consumatorilor). ANPC handles consumer complaints generally and can pressure an airline into a settlement, especially carriers with a Romanian commercial presence. The second is AACR (Autoritatea Aeronautică Civilă Română), the National Enforcement Body designated under article 16 of EU 261/2004. 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 later proceedings.

The third — and often the most effective — is a civil claim at a Judecătoria. For amounts under 10,000 RON (which covers every individual EU 261 claim up to 600 euro), 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 you may sue at the departure airport or the destination airport, so a passenger flying Bucharest to Paris can bring the action in Romania even if the operating carrier is French.

For a complete walk-through of the procedure for Romanian passengers, see our guide on how to file a flight delay claim from Romania . If you want to compare doing it yourself with using a specialised firm, our DIY versus claim agency comparison breaks down the real net figures.

The three-year prescription in Romania

Romania applies a three-year prescription period to EU 261 claims, under article 2517 of the Romanian Civil Code. That is the general limitation period for consumer obligations and the one Romanian courts have applied consistently to flight 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 disrupted on 15 June 2023 must be the subject of a court claim filed by 15 June 2026 at the latest. After that date, even a clearly meritorious claim will be rejected by a Romanian court as time-barred. The three-year clock runs from the date of the disrupted flight, not from the date the airline first refused the claim, and not from any subsequent correspondence.

This is materially shorter than in some other EU jurisdictions — Poland applies a one-year period for some carriers but ten years generally, Spain runs five years — so a Romanian passenger has a narrower window than a Polish or Spanish one. If you are close to the deadline and the airline is still stalling, the safest move is to file directly at the Judecătoria rather than continue another round of correspondence.

How this page connects with the rest

The delay threshold is one of three moving pieces in the 2026 reform. The other two — changed definitions of extraordinary circumstances and a tightened claim process — have their own pages. For the original Romanian version of this analysis, see our ghid EU 261 2026 praguri întârziere (in Romanian). For an overview of how the whole reform fits together, our EU 261 2026 reform breakdown walks through all three changes in sequence.

Get the claim moving while the rules still favour you

If you have a flight disrupted now, three hours applies, the airline is on the hook, and the only question is how to collect efficiently. If you would rather not chase the airline yourself — and especially if the carrier is non-EU or notoriously slow to settle — a specialised claim service handles the entire procedure on a no-win-no-fee basis.

Check your flight in two minutes with AirHelp — no win, no fee

This is not legal advice

This page is based on published and institutional sources. The rules around the 2026 reform are still in transition and the threshold may be adjusted in the final consolidated text. For advice on your individual case, contact ANPC (Autoritatea Națională pentru Protecția Consumatorilor) or AACR (Autoritatea Aeronautică Civilă Română), the supervisory authority for air passenger rights in Romania.

Sources and further reading

• EUR-Lex — Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 consolidated text
• CJEU Sturgeon, joined cases C-402/07 and C-432/07 (2009) — the three-hour rule
• CJEU Folkerts C-11/11 (2013) — delay at the final destination of a connecting flight
• 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