Your Guide to Claiming Ryanair Flight Delay Compensation

Flight Delay Compensation Ryanair

Under EU261, Ryanair is required to pay flight delay compensation to its passengers whenever:

• A flight arrives at the final destination with a delay of more than 3 hours.
• The delay was caused by issues within Ryanair's control.

In case your Ryanair flight was delayed due to extraordinary circumstances, you aren't eligible for compensation. These include any events that are outside the responsibilities and capabilities of an airline to prevent and that can lead to a delay or cancellation. Some of the most common causes include bad weather, airport strikes, runway closures, and other air traffic control restrictions, as well as bird strikes.

Preventing events such as bad weather is clearly outside of Ryanair’s capabilities. This is why in all the above-mentioned cases, passengers would not be able to claim Ryanair delay compensation.

However, technical faults are not considered exceptional circumstances. It is reasonable to expect the low-cost airline to monitor their fleet and address any potential issues. This means that passengers can apply for reimbursement from Ryanair.

It's important to remember that your Ryanair flight should've been delayed by more than 3 hours at the time of arrival at the destination airport. Meaning, that, unfortunately, waiting more than 3 hours at the airport before departure does not automatically entitle you to compensation. But you're still entitled to care from Ryanair. 

How much compensation for Ryanair flight delay? 

The amount of your Ryanair flight delay compensation depends on the distance of your journey. Generally, compensations vary between £220 (€250) and £520 (€600). We break down the exact amount of Ryanair flight delay compensation you can get in the table below.

Flight Cancellation Compensation Ryanair

If your flight was cancelled, you could claim Ryanair cancellation compensation. Eligibility, in this case, is determined by a few important criteria:

• You were informed of the cancellation less than 14 days before your flight.
• Your alternate flight arrived at your final destination more than 2 hours late.
• The flight cancellation was due to issues within Ryanair's control.

There are other cases in which you might be entitled to compensation from Ryanair if your flight with them was cancelled. You can see the full breakdown in the table below

Most flights tend to be cancelled on the day of their departure. If, however, you were notified of the cancellation between 7 and 14 days before your flight, you need to have arrived at your final destination with an overall delay of 4 hours to be eligible for compensation for your cancelled Ryanair flight.

It’s important to remember that if a flight is cancelled, you are entitled either to an alternate flight or to a full refund of your ticket costs. In this sense, refunds and compensation differ. You are entitled to a refund even if there were extraordinary circumstances or if you were notified of the cancellation more than 14 days before flying. You retain this right even if your Ryanair cancelled flight is not eligible for compensation.

Can I cancel my Ryanair flight?

You can change your Ryanair flight, but you cannot cancel it. If, for some reason, you need to cancel your flight with Ryanair, you would not be able to get a refund from the airline. According to Ryanair’s cancellation policy, you don’t need to inform their customer service that you are not flying.

In addition, if you have booked a return ticket, if you can’t fly on your outbound flight, you can still take the return flight.

Unfortunately, if you decide to cancel your plans with Ryanair, you would not be entitled to EU261 cancelled flight compensation.

Did you know you can get up to £520 compensation?

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Right To Care

In case of a cancellation or delay, Ryanair passengers can make use of their right to care. Under EU Regulation 261, the airline is required to provide passengers with food and drinks for the duration of their disruption.

If your Ryanair flight is delayed, the airline should pay the costs for all necessary purchases until your departure. If your flight was cancelled, the carrier is required to cover your food, drinks, and accommodation costs.

In most cases, the airline will offer their passengers vouchers which can be used at the airport. If you go over the Ryanair voucher amount or you don’t receive one, don’t worry. You can still make any additional purchases you would like. If you hold on to your receipts, the airline will have to reimburse you fully for your expenditures.

Can I claim compensation for Ryanair strikes?

Yes, you can claim compensation for Ryanair strikes, if these are strikes of airline personnel. As this is considered an issue under the airline's control, you can submit your Ryanair flight claim.

In the past, all delays due to strikes were considered ineligible for compensation. But after a court ruling, airlines are required to compensate passengers whose flights have been delayed or cancelled due to a wildcat strike. These encompass all spontaneous Ryanair strikes, provoked by airline restructuring.

Ryanair can no longer claim that their management's decisions are extraordinary circumstances. Their passengers can now submit claims for Ryanair strike compensation if the reason was an unannounced industrial action.

Airport strikes and union strikes, however, are still considered exceptional events that the company has no control over. In these cases, passengers’ Ryanair flight delay claims would not be paid.

Can I claim for a Ryanair Missed Connection?

According to EU261, to claim missed connection compensation, your flights need to be on the same booking. Unfortunately, Ryanair does not book flights under one reservation. So if you are connecting flights and a Ryanair causes you to miss your outbound flight, you would not be able to get a refund for your next flight.

How to claim compensation from Ryanair?

If you’ve had a Ryanair disruption in the past three years, you can choose between three ways in which you could claim your compensation.

You can claim on your own

You could approach Ryanair on your own and ask for your flight delay compensation. However, it is very important to have a working knowledge of EU Regulation 261 and any domestic laws on passenger rights.

Moreover, remember to be patient. This can often be a long and tiresome process. It involves a significant amount of paperwork and back and forth with the airline.

In addition, by claiming on your own, you could be reducing your chances of success. Lawyers and claim agencies can provide very useful legal expertise or simply do all the work on the passenger’s behalf. Unfortunately, many passengers who decide to claim on their own expend significant time and energy without being able to claim their Ryanair refund.

You can hire a lawyer

Alternatively, you could ask a lawyer to assist you. A law firm can provide you with valuable advice about claiming your Ryanair refund or compensation.

Before approaching a law firm, however, be aware that working with one may not significantly affect the amount of hassle involved. You would likely have to attend numerous meetings, hold phone calls and fill-out a lot of paperwork.

The biggest risk when claiming compensation from the airline (Ryanair in this case) with a lawyer is that you would have to pay them for their services, regardless of whether they helped you or not.

Get help from SkyRefund to claim your Ryanair flight delay compensation

SkyRefund will take all the necessary steps to make sure that you receive your delay compensation from Ryanair.

Using SkyRefund’s services, you can receive all the expert legal advice that a lawyer provides, but without having to pay us if Ryanair do not pay your compensation. You only need to submit your flight details (the flight number and flight date) and we will take it from there.

We partner with a leading European aviation law firm, so we are ready to take legal action if Ryanair refuses to pay your rightful EU261 compensation for denied boarding, flight delay or cancellation.

Ryanair Rankings

Skytrax, the leading airline ranking website, has given Ryanair an overall score of 6/10. This rating represents the average customer satisfaction for air travel components such as overall passenger comfort and value for money. Ryanair was in 3rd place in our ranking of the airlines with the most delays this summer. 

In terms of flight performance, Ryanair is the European airline with the largest number of flights in 2024. However, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company, Ryanair cancelled almost 3,000 of those flights that year. If yours was one of those flights, you can submit a Ryanair compensation claim with SkyRefund and let us help you claim your reimbursement.

Ryanair Luggage Requirements

Ryanair allows air travellers to bring a single small cabin bag (handbag, laptop bad or backpack) onboard. In 2025, the airline introduced changes to the size of the free baggage allowance. Currently, Ryanair passengers can carry small bags with dimensions 40 × 20 × 25 cm free of charge.

If you'd like, you can bring an additional bag up to 10 kg to the gate, but you'll need to purchase priority boarding. If passengers would like to purchase an additional checked-in baggage, they would have to pay €25 per bag if they declare it online and €40 if checking-in at the airport.

Can I Bring Medication in my Ryanair Hand Luggage?

Yes, Ryanair allows you to carry medication in your hand luggage. Liquid medications are also permitted if they are up to 100 ml. Exceptions are made for those over the standard 100 ml limit, only if you have a prescription or medical note. In this case, you may be asked to show it. It’s best to keep your medicines in their original packaging and easily accessible during security checks. This applies to insulin, inhalers, auto-injectors, and other essential medications as well.

In short, carrying medicines in your hand luggage with Ryanair is completely allowed — just follow the standard security rules and have documentation ready if the medication is more specialised.

Ryanair Boarding Pass Changes

Starting November 12th, 2025, Ryanair will use only digital boarding passes for their tickets. This means that if you're flying after mid-November, you need to have the Ryanair app or have a copy of the boarding pass in your phone's wallet. 

The move comes as part of the airline's digitalization and in line with internal studies showing that 80% of their passengers rely on digital boarding passes. 

The initial rollout was scheduled for the beginning of November, but Ryanair decided to postpone the implementation for the less busy periods after the mid-term breaks.