Flight delay compensation for Medjugorje flights
Two of the four airports serving Medjugorje are in the EU and two are not. That one fact decides more claims than the length of the delay does, and almost nobody writing about this village mentions it.
How this is worked out
Every cell in the tables below is the Regulation applied to that row and column, and nothing else. Whether you are covered at all comes from Article 3: any departure from a covered airport, or an arrival into one on an EU or UK carrier. The amounts come from Article 7(1), with the halving in Article 7(2) applied where it bites. The three-hour threshold is Article 6 as the Court read it in Sturgeon — measured at arrival, not departure. The answers are worked out in advance and printed straight into the table, so the page is useful with no connection at all.
What it cannot tell you
- Whether the airline will actually pay. The Regulation says what is owed; collecting it is a separate argument, and often a long one.
- Whether your particular delay was an extraordinary circumstance. That is a fact about the incident — weather, air traffic control, a strike outside the airline's own staff — and no table can settle it.
- The great-circle distance of your flight. The bands below need it and your booking confirmation has it; guessing a figure for a named city pair is exactly the kind of claim this site does not make.
- Cancellations and denied boarding, which have their own notice periods and re-routing rules under Articles 4 and 5.
- Anything about a bus, a transfer or a missed connection on the ground. The Regulation is about flights.
Most people who search for this are not owed anything, and a page that exists to sell a claim has no reason to tell them so. This one is not selling a claim, so it can: work through the two tables and if the answer is nothing, the answer is nothing, and you have your afternoon back.
Whether the Regulation covers your flight at all
Two of the four airports are in the EU and two are not, and that single fact decides more claims than the delay does. Departures are covered whoever operates them; arrivals from outside are covered only on an EU or UK carrier.
| Airport | Country | Flying out of it | Flying into it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Split | HR | Covered, whoever operates the flight | Covered, whoever operates the flight |
| Dubrovnik | HR | Covered, whoever operates the flight | Covered, whoever operates the flight |
| Mostar | BA | Not covered by departure | Covered only on an EU or UK carrier |
| Sarajevo | BA | Not covered by departure | Covered only on an EU or UK carrier |
“Covered” means the Regulation applies. It does not mean anything is owed — that is the table below, and the airline can still refuse where it proves extraordinary circumstances.
What is owed, if it is owed
The delay that counts is at the gate on arrival, not at departure — that has been the test since Sturgeon, and it is the single most common thing people get wrong about their own claim. Distance is the great-circle distance of the whole flight; your booking confirmation carries it.
| Distance band | Under 3 h late | 3 to 4 h late | 4 h or more |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 1,500 kmAny flight, wherever the other end is. | Nothing | €250 | €250 |
| Over 1,500 km, both ends insideBoth airports in the EU, EEA or UK. | Nothing | €400 | €400 |
| 1,500 – 3,500 km, one end outsideOne airport outside the area. | Nothing | €400 | €400 |
| Over 3,500 km, one end outsideThe band where the amount can be halved. | Nothing | €300 | €600 |
The €300 in the bottom row is not a mistake: over 3,500 km with one end outside the area, Article 7(2) lets the airline halve the €600 when it gets you there under four hours late. A claim company's landing page tends to show you the €600.
Why the airport matters more than the delay
A flight out of Split or Dubrovnik is covered whoever operates it — the Regulation attaches to the departure airport, not to the airline. A flight out of Mostar or Sarajevo is not covered at all by departure, because Bosnia and Herzegovina is outside the area.
The asymmetry that catches people is the return leg. Flying home from Sarajevo, you are covered only if the operating carrier holds an EU or UK licence — which on that route is common but not universal, and the operating carrier is not always the airline whose name is on the ticket.
If you think you have a claim
Write to the airline first, in writing, with the flight number and the actual arrival time at the gate. Claim companies take fifteen to sixteen per cent of what they recover, which is a reasonable price for work you did not want to do and a poor one for a letter the airline would have answered anyway.