Here are the new flying rules you should know about

EU negotiators have agreed a long-delayed overhaul of air passenger rights that guarantees free hand luggage and keeps existing delay compensation, after 13 years of talks.

The provisional agreement was reached on 13 June by EU member states and confirmed by the European Parliament, updating Regulation 261/2004, the bloc’s air passenger rights regime. It still needs a final plenary vote, expected in July, and the rules would take effect in the second half of 2027.

Under the deal, all airlines flying to or from EU airports must let passengers carry a personal item and a small cabin bag at no extra cost. MEPs set the free cabin bag at a maximum of 100cm across its combined dimensions and 7kg.

Airlines can still sell cheaper fares to passengers who choose to travel without the cabin bag, but the right to bring one must be built into the base ticket price.

The rules also ban airlines from charging passengers to sit next to a child aged 14 or younger, or next to a disabled, reduced-mobility or pregnant passenger they are accompanying.

Fees for correcting minor spelling errors in a booking and for printing a boarding pass are prohibited. So-called “no-show” clauses – where carriers cancel a return leg because a passenger missed the outbound flight – are banned, and complaint procedures are to be simplified with pre-filled forms.

Passengers keep the right to compensation of between €250 and €600 when a flight is delayed by three hours or more at the final destination, with the amount set by distance.

The Council had pushed during negotiations to raise the three-hour threshold and reduce the compensation bands, but those proposals did not survive into the final text.

The deal adds a non-exhaustive list of “extraordinary circumstances” in which airlines do not have to pay out, and requires airports to draw up contingency plans for accommodation during mass disruption.

The reform applies to flights departing EU airports regardless of the airline, and to flights into the EU operated by EU-based carriers. UK travellers flying home from an EU airport would therefore be covered, though an outbound UK-to-EU leg may not be unless it is on an EU carrier.

Domestic UK flights and UK-departing routes continue to fall under the separate UK261 rules enforced by the Civil Aviation Authority.

Push back

Budget carriers resisted the baggage measures throughout. easyJet Chief Executive Kenton Jarvis called the free cabin bag plan a “lunatic idea” during the parliamentary stage, arguing it would strip out passenger choice and force base fares higher.

Airlines for Europe, the bloc’s largest carrier association, described the wider package as a missed opportunity and said the retained compensation rules would not cut delays, most of which it attributed to air traffic control failings outside airline control.

IATA director general Willie Walsh said the outcome was a reform in name only and warned the changes would add costs ultimately borne by passengers.

Consumer groups welcomed the retained three-hour compensation rule and the baggage provisions, which they have long argued close a loophole exploited by low-cost airlines.

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