Flight compensation in Spain: delays, cancellations and how to claim

Which flights are covered

Whatever the cause, from 2 hours’ delay the airline must also provide meals and drinks, and a hotel if you are stuck overnight; after a cancellation or a 5-hour delay you can choose a refund. Care and refunds.

How much: example routes from Spain

Compensation per passenger for a 3-hour-plus delay or a late cancellation on the busiest international routes (Eurostat 2024):

How to claim in Spain

1. Claim from the airline in writing – its online form or a letter (complaint letter generator). Keep your booking, boarding pass and receipts.
2. National enforcement body: Agencia Estatal de Seguridad Aérea (AESA), Passenger Rights Division – Complain to the airline first. AESA handles complaints about incidents in Spain through its online form; its email address is for information requests only. It deals with flights departing from Spain, and flights arriving there from outside the EU.
3. Alternative dispute resolution: AESA is also an accredited alternative dispute resolution (ADR) body (accreditation published in the BOE on 10 May 2023). For incidents on flights from 2 June 2023 the procedure is free, you must have claimed from the airline first, and AESA’s decision is binding on the airline (not on you). If the airline does not comply, you can ask a court to enforce the decision.
4. Court: the local court for the departure or arrival airport, or – for cross-border cases – the European Small Claims Procedure.
5. Time limit: 5 years from the event that gave rise to the claim (Civil Code, art. 1964.2, as stated by the Community of Madrid’s consumer guidance). The Tribunal Supremo has not ruled specifically on EU261 claims.

Prefer not to do it yourself? A claims company does the work for a share of the compensation – see claim companies compared.

Airlines from Spain

• Iberiacustomer
• Iberia ExpressI2
• Vuelingcustomer
• Air EuropaUX
• VoloteaV7
• Binter CanariasNT

Customer service: Iberia, Vueling.

Airports in Spain

• Barcelona El Prat (BCN)1.36 min ATFM/arrival
• Madrid Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas (MAD)0.45 min ATFM/arrival
• Palma de Mallorca (PMI)1.97 min ATFM/arrival
• Málaga (AGP)0.48 min ATFM/arrival
• Alicante (ALC)0.15 min ATFM/arrival
• Gran Canaria (LPA)1.28 min ATFM/arrival
• Tenerife South (TFS)0.15 min ATFM/arrival
• Valencia (VLC)0.00 min ATFM/arrival
• Seville (SVQ)0.08 min ATFM/arrival
• Ibiza (IBZ)0.28 min ATFM/arrival
• Lanzarote (ACE)0.99 min ATFM/arrival
• Tenerife North (TFN)0.25 min ATFM/arrival
• Bilbao (BIO)0.00 min ATFM/arrival
• Fuerteventura (FUE)0.56 min ATFM/arrival
• Menorca (MAH)0.02 min ATFM/arrival
• Santiago de Compostela (SCQ)0.00 min ATFM/arrival
• Asturias (OVD)0.00 min ATFM/arrival
• Girona (GRO)0.00 min ATFM/arrival
• La Palma (SPC)0.00 min ATFM/arrival
• A Coruña (LCG)0.00 min ATFM/arrival
• Reus (REU)1.60 min ATFM/arrival
• Granada (GRX)0.00 min ATFM/arrival
• Vigo (VGO)0.00 min ATFM/arrival
• Santander (SDR)0.00 min ATFM/arrival

Delay causes, busiest routes and seasonal patterns: flights to Spain · European delay statistics.

Strikes in Spain

No strikes affecting flights in Spain are announced in our strike calendar at the moment.

Unions must give at least 10 days’ notice of strikes in public services (Royal Decree-Law 17/1977). For each air transport strike the Ministry of Transport sets minimum services (servicios mínimos) in a formal resolution, usually only a few days before, fixing the share of flights that must operate by type of route; airlines then choose which flights to keep. Island and long overland-alternative routes are the best protected: for the general strike of 11 November 2026, 56–85% of Balearic and Canary Islands flights had to operate, against 18–37% of short mainland routes.

Strike days at Spain’s airports since 2024

EUROCONTROL attributes every arrival flow restriction to a cause. These are the days on which restrictions at Spain’s airports were put down to industrial action, from January 2024 to 30 September 2026 – 55 in 2024, 56 in 2026.

Only restrictions on arriving flights at the airports themselves are counted; strikes by air traffic controllers elsewhere (for example in France, affecting overflights) and by airline staff do not appear here. A strike by air traffic controllers or airport staff is usually an extraordinary circumstance; a strike by the airline’s own staff is not. Source: EUROCONTROL. Check a specific day: delay cause checker.

Good to know

• The Canary Islands are an outermost region of the EU, so flights from Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria or Fuerteventura are covered by EU261 exactly like flights from mainland Spain.
• Flights between Spain and the UK, Ireland or the Benelux countries cross French airspace, so a French air traffic control strike can delay or cancel your flight even when nobody in Spain is on strike. During the French strike of 3–4 July 2025, Ryanair said most passengers on its 170 cancelled flights were only overflying France.
• In EUROCONTROL’s 2025 data, Palma had the highest average arrival flow-control delay of Spain’s big airports, mostly weather-related, with its worst day on 11 October 2025. Weather-related delays are usually extraordinary circumstances, but care (meals, a hotel if needed) is still owed.
• If AESA decides in your favour on a flight from 2 June 2023 onwards, the decision binds the airline – keep a copy, because it is what a court will enforce if the airline does not pay.

Frequently asked questions

How much compensation can I get for a delayed flight in Spain?

Under EU261, €250 for flights up to 1,500 km, €400 for 1,500–3,500 km (and for every flight within the EU over 1,500 km) and €600 for longer flights (€300 if a long-haul flight arrives 3–4 hours late), per passenger, if you arrive 3 hours or more late and the airline cannot prove extraordinary circumstances. It does not matter where you live – only where you flew from, where to, and with which airline.

Where do I complain in Spain if the airline refuses to pay?

To Agencia Estatal de Seguridad Aérea (AESA), Passenger Rights Division, the national enforcement body for Spain (Complain to the airline first. AESA handles complaints about incidents in Spain through its online form; its email address is for information requests only). It handles complaints about flights departing from Spain and flights arriving there from outside the EU. Alternative dispute resolution: AESA is also an accredited alternative dispute resolution (ADR) body (accreditation published in the BOE on 10 May 2023). For incidents on flights from 2 June 2023 the procedure is free, you must have claimed from the airline first, and AESA’s decision is binding on the airline (not on you). If the airline does not comply, you can ask a court to enforce the decision.

How long do I have to claim in Spain?

5 years from the event that gave rise to the claim (Civil Code, art. 1964.2, as stated by the Community of Madrid’s consumer guidance). The Tribunal Supremo has not ruled specifically on EU261 claims.

I live in Spain but my flight left from another country. Where can I claim?

Your rights depend on the flight, not on where you live. For a flight between two EU countries you can sue in the courts for the place of departure or the place of arrival (CJEU C-204/08 Rehder); for cross-border cases the European Small Claims Procedure works by post and online. The enforcement body to complain to is the one in the country where the incident happened.

Information only, not legal advice. Enforcement bodies and dispute schemes as listed by the European Commission, checked November 2026.

Sources

1. National enforcement bodies under Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 (updated 13 October 2026) – European Commission
2. Reclamaciones por cancelaciones, retrasos, denegaciones de embarque y PMR – AESA
3. AESA accredited as an alternative dispute resolution entity (10 May 2023) – AESA
4. Reclamaciones a compañías aéreas – plazo de cinco años – Comunidad de Madrid
5. Código Civil (consolidated text), art. 1964 – BOE
6. Real Decreto-ley 17/1977 sobre relaciones de trabajo (strike notice) – BOE
7. Huelga y servicios mínimos – resoluciones (aviación civil) – Ministerio de Transportes
8. El Gobierno decreta servicios mínimos de entre el 18% y el 85% para los vuelos durante la huelga general (9 November 2026) – elDiario.es
9. Ryanair cancels 170 flights due to French ATC strike (3 July 2025) – Ryanair Holdings (SEC filing)
10. Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, Article 349 (outermost regions: Canary Islands, Azores, Madeira, French overseas regions) – EUR-Lex
11. Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 – full text (Article 3: scope; recital 15: air traffic management decisions) – EUR-Lex
12. Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 as it applies in the UK (UK261) – Article 3, scope – legislation.gov.uk
13. UK flight punctuality statistics 2025 (flights by destination from UK airports) – UK Civil Aviation Authority
14. Airport arrival ATFM (flow-control) delay data, 2024–2025 – EUROCONTROL Aviation Intelligence Unit
15. Air passenger transport by reporting airport (avia_par), 2024 – Eurostat
16. Eurostat – air passenger transport routes between partner airports and main airports (2024) – Eurostat
17. EUROCONTROL – airport arrival ATFM delays (open performance data) – EUROCONTROL
18. C-204/08 Rehder v Air Baltic (jurisdiction: place of departure or arrival) – EUR-Lex

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