More than thirteen years after the European Commission first proposed a revision of the EU’s landmark air passenger rights rules, negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council have broken down, raising the very real possibility that the entire reform will fail and the existing 2004 regulation will remain unchanged for the foreseeable future.
A marathon overnight trilogue session earlier this week ended without agreement deep in the night.
Despite limited progress on secondary issues, the two institutions remain deadlocked on the central question of when passengers should receive compensation for delayed flights and how much they should be paid.
Under the current Regulation 261/2004, passengers are entitled to compensation of €250, €400 or €600 (depending on flight distance) if their flight arrives more than three hours late at the final destination.
The Council wants to raise this threshold significantly, to four hours for short-haul and up to six hours for long-haul flights, while also lowering compensation amounts in many cases.
The European Parliament has repeatedly insisted on keeping the three-hour rule as a non-negotiable red line.
MEPs have repeatedly stated that they will not compromise on the current levels and fundamental principles of passenger protection.
Tomasz Pawliszyn, president of the Air Passenger Rights Association (APRA), told Brussels Signal the outcome of the latest meeting was “incredibly disheartening for passengers and European travel.”
“For more than twenty years, EC261 has created a stronger and more competitive aviation market, supporting higher passenger volumes, greater mobility across Europe and the success of legacy, low-cost and regional airlines.
“At the same time, the velocity of innovation in aviation has been extraordinary. There is no justifiable reason why some now argue that airlines can no longer meet the same commitments to passengers that they have successfully met for decades. EC261 should be stronger, not weaker.
“Yet the discussions focused on weakening rights through lower compensation and adding exceptions by expanding the scope of extraordinary circumstances, including attempts to revive the so-called ‘technical excuse’ for airline disruptions.
“We know from Canada’s experience that these loopholes do not create a better system. They create backlogs, delays and a lack of accountability, with nearly 95,000 unresolved claims and an average waiting time of 2 1/2 years.
“The Council’s negotiating position shows a troubling disregard for passengers and European voters. The European Parliament has repeatedly promised to defend the existing thresholds, compensation levels and extraordinary circumstances framework.
“For Europe’s travellers, Parliament is now the last line of defence. They have been promised that Parliament would defend their rights. Now is the moment to prove those promises were more than words.”
The airline industry, for its part, argues that the current system is outdated and imposes excessive costs that are ultimately passed on to passengers in higher fares.
Industry representatives emphasise an extraordinary pace of innovation in aviation over the past two decades and contend that overly rigid compensation rules discourage investment and hurt competitiveness.
Airlines for Europe (A4E) said that the current delay threshold “doesn’t match tight airline operational realities”.
“Safely organising a replacement plane and crew takes closer to 5 hours, not 3. A realistic threshold would actually reduce the longest delays by up to 40 per cent. ”
They warned that under current proposals, annual compensation costs could almost double, jumping from €8 billion to €15 billion.
“This burden will inevitably lead to structurally higher airfares for European passengers, at a time when many families are already feeling the pressure of rising travel costs.”
They warned that the EU might choose political symbolism over practical reform.
A hard deadline on June 15 now looms over the talks.
If no compromise is reached by then, the reform proposal — which has been stuck in the legislative pipeline since 2013 — will automatically lapse.
Lead MEP Andrey Novakov has said that Parliament will not accept a watered-down deal that significantly weakens passenger protections.
Brussels’ plans to reform air-passenger compensation rights are being met with much scepticism from passenger rights organisations that adhere to the notion of “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it”. https://t.co/G1zQkNY8Hy
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) March 4, 2026
The clash on air passenger rights and compensations comes as green legislation and taxation have caused higher air fares across Europe in recent years.
The inclusion of aviation in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) forces airlines to purchase carbon allowances for every flight, while the ReFuelEU Aviation mandate requires increasing blends of expensive sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which currently costs 3to 5 times more than conventional jet fuel.
On top of this, several countries have introduced or raised national flight taxes, such as the Netherlands’ €26.43 departure tax, Germany’s air travel tax, and France’s “solidarity tax” — all justified on environmental grounds.
These cumulative costs, combined with the EU’s aggressive climate targets, are directly passed on to passengers, making intra-European flights noticeably more expensive compared to other regions and contributing to reduced competitiveness for European carriers and airports.
Irish airline Ryanair will cut more than one in five flights in Belgium in response to the Belgian Government’s decision to double aviation tax to €10 per passenger embarkation. https://t.co/gRS2D3XhU5
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) December 10, 2025
