Flight cancelled by a strike: your EU rights

When a strike cancels or delays a flight to or from Lisbon, an EU law, Regulation 261/2004, decides what the airline owes you. Some rights apply whatever the cause. Whether you also get cash compensation depends mostly on whose staff are on strike. For the strikes coming up, see our strike list.

Which flights are covered

The rules apply to:

• every flight departing from an airport in the EU, whatever the airline, so every flight out of Lisbon;
• flights arriving in the EU from outside it, if the airline is an EU airline.

A flight into Lisbon from outside the EU on a non-EU airline is not covered by these rules.

Refund or another flight

If your flight is cancelled, the choice is yours, not the airline's:

• a refund of the full price of the ticket, paid within seven days;
• another flight to your destination at the earliest opportunity;
• or another flight on a later date that suits you.

Airlines often rebook you automatically onto a new flight. If it does not suit you, you can still ask for the refund instead.

Meals and a hotel while you wait

While you wait for a new flight, the airline must give you, free of charge:

• meals and refreshments in reasonable relation to the waiting time;
• a hotel if you have to stay one or more nights, and transport between the airport and the hotel;
• two phone calls or emails.

These rights also apply when the strike is not the airline's fault: the "extraordinary circumstances" exception in the regulation covers only cash compensation. If the airline does not provide them, keep every receipt and ask it to repay reasonable costs.

Compensation depends on whose strike it is

Compensation is a fixed amount paid on top of the refund or the new flight. An airline does not have to pay it when the cancellation was caused by "extraordinary circumstances" it could not have avoided even with all reasonable measures. Who is on strike decides whether a strike counts as one.

The airline's own staff

In March 2021 the EU Court of Justice ruled on a strike by SAS pilots, called by their unions mainly to win pay increases. It held that such a strike is not an extraordinary circumstance, even when it follows all the rules of national law, so SAS had to pay. In 2018 the Court had already decided the same for a "wildcat" strike by TUIfly staff. The easyJet cabin crew strike of 19–23 December 2026 is a strike by the airline's own staff over working conditions.

Everyone else

A strike outside the airline, such as by air traffic controllers or airport staff, can count as an extraordinary circumstance. The airline then has to show that the strike caused the cancellation and that it could not have avoided it.

How much

The amount depends on the distance of your flight:

• €250 for flights up to 1,500 km, such as Lisbon to Madrid or Funchal;
• €400 for flights within the EU longer than 1,500 km, such as Lisbon to Berlin, and for other flights of 1,500 to 3,500 km;
• €600 for longer flights outside the EU, such as Lisbon to New York.

The airline does not have to pay compensation if it told you about the cancellation:

• at least two weeks before departure;
• one to two weeks before, and offered a new flight leaving no more than two hours earlier and arriving less than four hours later;
• less than a week before, and offered a new flight leaving no more than one hour earlier and arriving less than two hours later.

If the new flight gets you there only a little late, the airline may cut the amount by half. A flight that is not cancelled but reaches your final destination three hours or more late is owed the same compensation, under the same strike rules.

How to claim

1. At the airport, keep your boarding pass, your booking, every message from the airline about the cancellation, and the receipts for anything you paid for yourself.
2. Claim from the airline that operates the flight, usually through a claim form on its website. You can do this yourself, for free. Claim companies will do it for you in exchange for a share of the payout.
3. If the airline has not answered within six weeks, or you disagree with its answer, you can complain to ANAC, Portugal's civil aviation authority, about a flight from a Portuguese airport. Use its online form, in Portuguese or English, and attach your claim, the airline's reply and your booking.
4. ANAC cannot order an airline to pay you. If the airline still refuses, you can go to a consumer dispute body (if you live in the EU) or to court; the European Small Claims procedure covers claims across EU borders.

What changes in 2027

The EU has agreed a revised version of these rules, and the Council gave its final approval on 13 July 2026. They apply only twelve months after they enter into force, so not before the second half of 2027. Until then, the rules above hold. The changes most relevant to strikes:

• The amounts stay at €250, €400 and €600, and the three-hour delay threshold stays.
• A list of extraordinary circumstances is written into the law. It includes strikes at airports, air traffic control and ground handlers the airline does not choose.
• A strike by the airline's own staff counts as extraordinary only if their demands are ones that only public authorities can meet. A strike over pay and working conditions still means compensation.
• Airlines must acknowledge a claim straight away and, within 30 days, either pay or explain why not.