On 17 September 2026 the UK Civil Aviation Authority sets the right to care by distance, not by cause. Food and drink are owed after at least two hours on flights under 1,500km, at least three hours from 1,500km to 3,500km, and at least four hours over 3,500km, whatever delayed the aircraft.
The clock depends on how far you are flying, not on how long the airline thinks the repair will take. Read on 17 September 2026 from the CAA delays page, the right to care begins at at least two hours for flights under 1,500km, at least three hours for flights between 1,500km and 3,500km, and at least four hours for flights over 3,500km.
So a two hour hold on a short hop already qualifies, while the same two hours on a long haul departure does not. The CAA uses Glasgow to Amsterdam, East Midlands to Marrakesh and London to New York as its worked examples, and measures distance by the Great Circle Route method, not by the flight time on your boarding pass.
These thresholds are not a courtesy. They sit in Article 6(1) of UK Reg (EU) No 261/2004, which owes assistance "for two hours or more in the case of flights of 1500 kilometres or less", and works up through the two longer bands from there.
| Flight distance | Delay before care is owed | CAA example route |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1,500km | At least 2 hours | Glasgow to Amsterdam |
| 1,500km to 3,500km | At least 3 hours | East Midlands to Marrakesh |
| Over 3,500km | At least 4 hours | London to New York |
Three things, and one of them almost nobody claims. Article 9 of the regulation, reproduced on legislation.gov.uk, says passengers shall be offered free of charge "meals and refreshments in a reasonable relation to the waiting time", hotel accommodation where a stay of one or more nights becomes necessary, and transport between the airport and the place of accommodation.
Article 9(2) then adds the line gate staff never mention, "two telephone calls, telex or fax messages, or e-mails", also free of charge. The CAA puts it in plainer words as "two phone calls or emails". It matters when your phone is dead and someone is waiting at arrivals.
Note the split inside Article 6(1). Food, drink and the messages unlock at the two, three or four hour mark. The hotel and the transport to it only unlock when expected departure moves to at least the day after the time previously announced, so a long evening in the terminal buys a voucher, not a bed.
No. The CAA page is explicit that you should receive food and drink, the two messages and overnight accommodation from your airline "regardless of the reason for the delay". Air traffic control restrictions, a strike somewhere down the line, fog, a bird strike, a crew shortage, none of it changes care.
This is the opposite of how compensation works, which is why it is the most useful thing to know at a gate. Compensation can be refused where the airline considers the delay caused by extraordinary circumstances, and Article 6(4), inserted on 14 December 2023 by the Aviation (Consumers) (Amendment) Regulations 2023, writes that defence into the delay article itself. Care has no such escape hatch. Our EU261 and UK261 guide covers that line, and winter weather refusals shows how carriers argue it.
So an airline can tell you truthfully that you will get nothing in compensation and still owe you a sandwich. Two separate entitlements, usually two separate claim forms.
Search this question in English and most of what comes back is written for a departure from the United States. Those pages are carrier customer service plans and a federal dashboard recording what airlines have promised of their own accord. A published company promise is not a threshold in law, and the airline writes it.
UK261 works the other way round. The number is fixed in the regulation, identical for every carrier, and it does not depend on the airline signing up to anything. The CAA applies it to flights leaving a UK airport and to flights coming back into the UK on a UK or EU airline, so a reader flying home to Manchester is on the wrong page reading the operating carrier's commitments.
One divergence is worth knowing if you read the UK and EU texts side by side. The EU text of Article 6(1)(b) as adopted covers "all intra-Community flights of more than 1500 kilometres and of all other flights between 1500 and 3500 kilometres". Those first words were omitted from the UK version on 31 December 2020 by the Air Passenger Rights and Air Travel Organisers' Licensing (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, so the UK band is simply all flights between 1500 and 3500 kilometres. The practical thresholds are unchanged.
You buy your own and claim it back. The CAA states that where your airline is unable to, or does not, organise care, you may make your own arrangements and claim the costs back later. The condition is documentary. Ask for an itemised receipt or invoice showing what you purchased and how much you spent, because the airline requires it to process the claim.
The CAA notes airlines may publish their own guidelines on what counts, and that alcoholic drinks, luxury hotels and luxury meals are unlikely to qualify. Some publish a daily cash figure instead, which is how easyJet's 25 pounds a day and capping a self booked hotel at the airline's own offer come about.
Expenses and compensation are usually two claims on two forms. If you are not satisfied with the airline's final response, or it takes more than eight weeks, the CAA says you can escalate to an Alternative Dispute Resolution provider where the airline has one, or to the CAA's own Passenger Advice and Complaints Team where it does not.
The whole journey. Where a booking includes two or more flights, the CAA says the right to care and to compensation is based on the distance between the first and the last airport in that booking. A short first leg does not trap you in the two hour band when the itinerary ends on another continent.
If a delay on the first leg makes you miss the connection, and the replacement flight falls outside the thresholds above, care is owed, including accommodation when you must now wait overnight.
The exception is self transfer. Where the journey is two or more separate bookings, the CAA states you have no statutory right to care, compensation or transport to your last destination when a delay makes you miss a flight, although each individual flight keeps its own entitlements. That is the whole subject of two airlines on one booking.
A new option appears. Article 6(1)(iii) triggers Article 8(1)(a) at five hours, reimbursement of the ticket price for the parts of the journey not made, paid within seven days. The CAA states it plainly, at a delay of at least five hours you can choose not to travel and get a refund for the flights you have not yet taken.
Read the trade carefully. Taking the refund ends the airline's duty to fly you anywhere, so it is the wrong choice if you still want to reach the destination. It is the right choice when the trip has lost its point.
Care does not stop while you decide. Vouchers, the two messages and an overnight hotel all continue on the same distance thresholds, the ground covered in how many nights the airline pays for. If this ends up on an insurance claim instead, check what insurance covers first, because insurers deduct what the airline paid. Our methodology explains how each figure is dated.
Only if the flight is under 1,500km. On the CAA thresholds read on 17 September 2026, two hours triggers the right to care on short flights, three hours on flights between 1,500km and 3,500km, and four hours above 3,500km. A two hour wait for a long haul departure carries no entitlement to food and drink yet.
Yes. The CAA says you should receive food and drink, two phone calls or emails, and accommodation where relevant from your airline regardless of the reason for the delay. Weather and air traffic control problems can defeat a compensation claim as extraordinary circumstances, but they do not remove the duty to look after you while you wait.
Ask staff first, then buy your own and claim it back. The CAA says you may make your own arrangements and recover the cost from the airline, provided you keep an itemised receipt or invoice showing what you purchased and how much you spent. Alcoholic drinks, luxury meals and luxury hotels are unlikely to be treated as reasonable.
UK261 sets no cash amount. Article 9 requires meals and refreshments "in a reasonable relation to the waiting time", so the value tracks the length of the delay rather than a fixed sum. Some airlines publish their own daily figure for self booked food during disruption, and that published figure is what their claims team applies.
Yes, once the expected departure moves to at least the day after the time previously announced. Article 6(1)(ii) unlocks hotel accommodation and transport between the airport and the hotel at that point. A long evening delay that still departs the same day gives you food, drink and the two messages, but not a bed.
Yes, they are separate entitlements and usually separate forms. Care expenses are owed whatever caused the delay. Compensation depends on arriving more than three hours late and can be refused for extraordinary circumstances. The CAA says you may have to submit one claim for compensation and a separate claim for expenses, then escalate after eight weeks.