Which airline pays when two carriers share one booking

Which airline do I claim from when two airlines share one booking?

Either one. The Commission's interpretative guidelines on Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, published in the Official Journal as C/2024/5687 on 25 September 2024 and read on 17 September 2026, put it in a single sentence at point 2.1.3, any operating air carrier that participated in the performance of at least one of the connecting flights is liable to pay this compensation, regardless of whether or not the flight operated by this carrier was the cause of the travel disruption. You choose the defendant, and you can pick the one you can reach.

That sentence sits in the section headed Flights within the scope of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, and the guidelines footnote it to Case C-502/18, Ceske aerolinie. The two paragraphs after it give the worked examples. An EU carrier flies the first leg, a non-EU carrier flies the second under a code share, the delay arises on the second leg, and the passenger may still bring the action against the EU carrier. It works in reverse too, where a non-EU carrier causes the long delay on the first flight into the EU, the claim may go to the EU carrier that operated the second flight.

This is why the usual advice, write to the carrier that operated the delayed leg, is incomplete rather than wrong. It hands you one address when the guidelines hand you every carrier on the reservation. Thresholds, the three hour rule and the extraordinary circumstances defence are in our EU261 compensation guide.

What counts as one booking?

The rule only bites if the flights are one journey, and the guidelines set that test at point 2.1.2. If a passenger's journey, from the first departure to the final destination, consists of several flights, those flights are considered as a whole for the purposes of the Regulation if they were booked as a single unit, or in other words the subject of a single booking.

The same point adds that the place of initial departure and the final destination of the entire journey are what matter, regardless of any stopovers or airports used during the journey. That is how a delay occurring outside the EU stays inside the Regulation. It is also why an outbound and a return on one booking are not one flight, settled in Emirates Airlines, footnote 22.

Point 2.1.3 then goes past code sharing. The guidelines state that no provision of the Regulation makes the classification as a connecting flight subject to the condition that there is a specific legal relationship between the carriers. Two airlines with no agreement between them still form a connecting flight where a travel agency combined them, charged an overall price and issued a single ticket.

How much is the missed connection worth?

Article 7(1) of the Regulation sets three amounts. The distance is measured to the last destination at which the disruption delays your arrival, by the great circle route, which for a connection means the whole journey and not the leg that failed.

The retained UK version keeps the same structure in sterling. Article 7 on legislation.gov.uk shows paragraph 1 substituted with effect from 31 December 2020 by S.I. 2019/278, and the intra-Community wording removed from the middle band, so the UK text reads simply all flights between 1500 and 3500 kilometres.

One line is worth knowing before you name a figure. Article 7(2) lets the operating carrier halve the payment where it re-routed you and you still reached the final destination within two, three or four hours of the original arrival time, by band.

The airline says the other carrier caused it, now what?

This is the loop the guidelines close. Airline one says the inbound aircraft arrived late from airline two. Airline two says it never held a contract with you. Under the sentence at point 2.1.3 neither reply is a defence, because liability does not follow fault between the carriers.

The Regulation already tells the airlines where to settle that between themselves. Article 13, headed Right of redress, provides that where an operating air carrier pays compensation, no provision of the Regulation may be interpreted as restricting its right to seek compensation from any person, including third parties. Recital 8 says the same. The carrier that pays you is free to invoice the carrier that broke the schedule, and that recovery is their problem rather than yours.

Article 15 shuts the other exit. Obligations towards passengers may not be limited or waived, notably by a derogation or restrictive clause in the contract of carriage. A conditions of carriage page telling you that claims must go to the operating carrier of the affected segment does not displace Article 7.

So quote the sentence, name point 2.1.3 and the Official Journal reference, and say plainly which carrier on the reservation you are claiming from. If the airline still refuses, the file goes to the national enforcement body or to court. Plenty of people hand it to a claims company instead and accept the fee, a reasonable trade when two carriers are busy pointing at each other.

Check the claim with Compensair→Useful when both carriers on the reservation keep redirecting you and you would rather pay a fee than chase two airlines.Tracked on mobile web only, the page works on desktop too.

How do I write the claim so it does not bounce?

Keep it to one page and one defendant. A letter that names both carriers and asks either to decide gets filed as a query.

Claim deadlines are national rather than set by the Regulation, so confirm the limitation period where you would file. Keep the receipts from the night as well, because a policy sometimes covers what the airline will not, see what travel insurance actually covers.

• Open with the reservation, not the flight. One booking reference, both flight numbers, both operating carriers, scheduled and actual arrival at the final destination.
• Pick the carrier you want to pay. An entity you can serve, with a working claims form and a record of paying, beats the carrier that happened to run late.
• State the band. Distance from the first departure to the final destination, and the Article 7(1) amount that goes with it.
• Quote point 2.1.3 of the guidelines in full, with the Official Journal reference C/2024/5687 and Case C-502/18 alongside it.
• Answer the redress point before they raise it. Article 13 leaves them free to recover from the other carrier, so fault between airlines is irrelevant to your claim.
• Attach the boarding passes and the arrival evidence, then set a dated deadline for the reply.

When does none of this apply?

Scope comes first. Article 3(1) covers passengers departing from an airport in the territory of a Member State, and passengers departing from a third country to a Member State only where the operating carrier of the flight concerned is a Community carrier. A US airline flying you from New York into Europe sits outside that.

Point 2.1.4 of the guidelines kills a popular assumption. The Regulation does not apply to connecting flights operated by an EU carrier under a single booking where both the departure airport of the first leg and the arrival airport of the second leg are in a non-EU country and only the stopover airport is in a Member State. Applicability is established solely on the geographical locations of the first departure airport and the final destination.

And the single reservation is the hinge of everything above. A carrier that was never on your reservation owes nothing under the Regulation however generous the transfer time looked. Every figure and quotation here was read from the pages listed below on 17 September 2026, and our methodology sets out how we check them.