British Airways flight compensation — EU 261 vs UK261 after Brexit

After Brexit, British Airways flights are covered by two parallel regimes that look almost identical but live in different legal systems. A flight departing from Sweden or any other EU country is still covered by EU Regulation 261/2004, regardless of who the operating carrier is — so a delayed Stockholm–London or Gothenburg–London flight with BA gives €250–€600 under EU rules. A flight departing from the United Kingdom to Sweden is covered by UK261, the British rulebook that replaced EU 261 inside the UK on 1 January 2021. The structure and amounts mirror the EU regulation: £220, £350 and £520 instead of €250, €400 and €600. This page explains which one applies to your BA flight, how to claim, and which forum gives you the best odds.

Keep two terms apart first. Compensation is the flat sum you receive for the inconvenience of a long delay, a cancelled flight or denied boarding. A refund is getting your ticket money back when you choose not to travel after a cancellation. They are two separate rights, and with a cancelled flight you can in principle claim both at once.

Brexit drew a line straight through BA's network

Before 31 December 2020, British Airways was a Community carrier and every BA flight to or from the EU was covered by EU 261. After Brexit the picture splits in two:

• Departure from Sweden (or any other EU country) to the UK — ARN–LHR, GOT–LHR, MMX–LHR: EU 261 applies in full. The departing airport is on EU territory, and EU 261 covers every flight departing from an EU airport regardless of the operating carrier's nationality. BA being British after Brexit changes nothing.
• Departure from the UK to Sweden — LHR–ARN, LHR–GOT: EU 261 does not apply. BA is no longer a Community carrier, and a flight departing from a UK airport on a non-EU carrier sits outside the EU regulation. UK261 applies instead — the same structure, the same monetary amounts, but adjudicated in the UK.
• Departure from outside the EU/UK to Sweden — JFK–LHR–ARN, BOS–LHR–GOT: the operating carrier on the long-haul leg out of the third country is BA, neither EU 261 nor UK261 covers that segment. But if the LHR–ARN connection is delayed and you reach Stockholm three or more hours late on a single booking, Folkerts (C-11/11) gives compensation on the total distance — see the connection section below.

The amounts are practically interchangeable. UK261 uses £220 / £350 / £520, the EU regulation uses €250 / €400 / €600. The pound figures are slightly below the euro figures at most exchange rates — small enough that the real choice is forum, not money. We cover how EU 261 works in practice in a section of its own.

What you are owed — distance bands

The threshold is the same in both regimes: a delay of three hours or more on arrival at your final destination. It is the arrival time that counts, not the departure time, and it comes from the joined Sturgeon rulings (C-402/07 and C-432/07), which the UK courts have applied analogously after Brexit — confirmed most recently in Avenue Travel (2024), which established that UK261 is substantively identical to EU 261 and that CJEU case law continues to guide UK interpretation.

When BA does not have to pay

British Airways does not have to pay the flat compensation if the disruption was caused by a genuine extraordinary circumstance outside the airline's control — extreme weather, an external air traffic control strike, a security threat, a bird strike. A few BA-specific disruption patterns from the Sweden network are worth knowing:

• Technical faults on A380, Boeing 777 or A350. A technical fault caused by inadequate maintenance is not an extraordinary circumstance. The Court of Justice of the EU ruled this in Wallentin-Hermann (C-549/07): a fault inherent in the normal operation of the aircraft falls within the airline's operating risk.
• BALPA pilot strikes and IAG-Group cabin crew strikes. A strike by the airline's own staff is treated as an internal labour dispute, not an extraordinary circumstance — the CJEU made this explicit in Krüsemann (C-195/17). It is the external strikes (air traffic control, airport ground handlers in a separate company) that may qualify.
• Heathrow Terminal 5 capacity issues and winter weather. The Terminal 5 hub regularly struggles in winter, and BA is fond of citing weather as an extraordinary circumstance. Get the cause in writing and check it against the actual conditions on the day — a moderate weather event that closed BA's operation but not the airport is rarely sufficient.

We cover what counts as an extraordinary circumstance in detail on its own page.

Connections through Heathrow — the Folkerts rule

If your booking is Stockholm–Bangalore via London on a single ticket and the LHR–BLR leg is delayed by four hours, your compensation is calculated on the total distance from Stockholm to Bangalore, not on the LHR–BLR leg alone. This is the Folkerts rule (C-11/11): with a connection on a single booking, what matters is the arrival delay at the final destination and the total flight distance. In the Stockholm–Bangalore example the total distance is over 3,500 km, so the compensation is €600. The fact that the delay arose on the second leg out of LHR does not change the answer.

This matters in practice because Heathrow is the main BA hub for long-haul, and connection delays are common. As long as the first segment departs from an EU airport, EU 261 covers the whole trip on the total distance.

How to submit the claim to BA

British Airways handles claims through its own form on britishairways.com:

1. Gather the paperwork. Booking reference, flight number, travel date, names of all passengers. Save boarding passes and receipts for meals or hotel.
2. Go to britishairways.com → Help and contacts → Claim Compensation. Fill in the form with the booking reference, the disruption type and the actual arrival time.
3. Be factual and concrete. Refer to EU 261/2004 if the flight departed from Sweden, or to the UK Air Passenger Rights Regulations 2019 if it departed from the UK. State the amount based on flight distance.
4. Expect a reply in around 28 days. BA is among the faster European legacy carriers to respond, but the airline routinely refuses around half of the claims on the first round. A first no is normal — do not treat it as the end of the case.
5. Save everything. Take screenshots of the form, save BA's reply and every later message.

We weigh whether to claim yourself or use a service on its own page.

When BA says no — escalation paths

A first rejection is common and almost always worth challenging. Which escalation route fits depends on which regime covers the flight:

• EU 261 flights (departure from Sweden) — ARN. Allmänna reklamationsnämnden (the Swedish National Board for Consumer Disputes) reviews the dispute free of charge. ARN takes EU 261 cases on tickets bought in Sweden by Sweden-resident consumers and produces a written recommendation. BA usually follows the recommendation, although it is not legally binding.
• UK261 flights (departure from the UK) — CEDR. The British Civil Aviation Authority designates CEDR (the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution) as BA's alternative dispute resolution body. The procedure is free for the passenger, BA pays the case fee, and CEDR's decision is binding on BA up to £10,000. You first have to give BA eight weeks or get a final rejection letter; then file at cedr.com with the booking reference, copies of the correspondence and a short statement.
• Court. For EU 261 cases on tickets bought in Sweden, a Swedish district court is the natural forum. For UK261 cases, the equivalent is a British County Court (or Money Claim Online for small sums). Court is rarely necessary — most BA cases settle once ARN or CEDR rules — but it remains the backstop. We cover taking the case to court on its own page.

Limitation periods — Sweden gives you four extra years

The limitation period is one of the genuine, practical reasons to prefer the Swedish forum where you can. The Court of Justice of the EU left the time limit to national law in Cuadrench Moré (C-139/11):

• Sweden — 10 years under section 2 of preskriptionslagen 1981:130. A claim against BA on a Stockholm–London flight delayed in May 2018 is still actionable in May 2028.
• United Kingdom — 6 years under section 5 of the Limitation Act 1980. A delay in May 2018 must reach the court before May 2024 to be timely.

For a Stockholm-bought ticket on an EU 261-covered flight you can choose the Swedish forum and gain four extra years. This is meaningful because BA's correspondence cycle on a contested case routinely takes 12–18 months — and a CEDR review under UK261 can stretch a further six months.

Alternative: use a claim firm

If you would rather not write the letters yourself, a service such as AirHelp can pursue the BA claim on your behalf for a share of the amount. You pay nothing if the claim does not succeed. The trade-off is the same as with any agent: less work, lower net payout. The choice is usually clearest where the case is contested and you do not want to spend the time on the back-and-forth with BA.

Sources and further reading

• EUR-Lex — Regulation (EC) No 261/2004
• UK legislation — Air Passenger Rights and Air Travel Organisers' Licensing (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019
• Court of Justice of the EU — Sturgeon and Others, joined cases C-402/07 and C-432/07 (three-hour threshold)
• Court of Justice of the EU — Wallentin-Hermann, case C-549/07 (technical faults are not extraordinary)
• Court of Justice of the EU — Cuadrench Moré, case C-139/11 (limitation period under national law)
• Court of Justice of the EU — Krüsemann and Others, case C-195/17 (own-staff strikes are not extraordinary)
• Court of Justice of the EU — Folkerts, case C-11/11 (total distance on connecting flights)
• Transportstyrelsen — Passenger rights — the Swedish supervisory authority
• UK Civil Aviation Authority — Air passenger rights — the UK supervisory authority
• ARN — Allmänna reklamationsnämnden and CEDR — alternative dispute resolution

Last reviewed: 18 May 2026.