After 13 years of wrangling, EU governments agreed on 12 June to maintain the right to cash compensation for passengers whose flights are delayed three hours or more, with payouts of €250-€600 depending on distance. The compromise now heads for a rubber-stamp vote in the European Parliament on Monday. Spain had lobbied alongside consumer groups to preserve the current threshold, arguing that raising it to four or six hours—as some states proposed—would hurt tourism-dependent regions and undercut incentives for airlines to prevent delays. The deal also obliges carriers to let families sit together free of charge and to include at least one personal item in the ticket price. For companies flying staff into Spain, the decision locks in familiar cost-recovery rules and reduces the need to renegotiate service-level agreements with travel providers. However, airlines have 12 months to adapt, so claim processes could change next summer. Mobility managers should update traveller-rights briefing notes and remind employees to file claims promptly; studies show only 38 % of entitled passengers currently do so. Given ongoing staffing shortages at European hubs, the preserved threshold could lead to higher compensation payouts in 2026-27 budgets.
Source: El País
