Charter flight or package holiday delayed: who pays?

Updated 13 October 2026

Your charter flight was hours late or cancelled. You booked a package with TUI, Ving, Spies or another tour operator, and now the airline and the tour operator point at each other. In fact there are two different claims, and each goes to a different company.

Two claims, two companies

Compensation for the delay (EU261). Regulation 261/2004 applies to any operating airline (Article 3(5)), charter flights included. You claim the fixed €250, €400 or €600 per passenger from the airline that actually flew you, even though you bought the trip from a tour operator. Finland's KRIL said the airline is primarily liable for this (D/1726/35/2012), and Denmark's package holiday board, Pakkerejse-Ankenævnet, refused to examine an EU261 claim against a travel agency (2010/0318).

A price reduction for a spoiled holiday. If the delay cost you a day at the hotel, that is a separate claim against the tour operator under the package travel rules (Directive (EU) 2015/2302). The Directive says it does not affect your EU261 rights (Article 14(5)).

Can one be deducted from the other?

Sometimes, where both pay for the same loss. EU261 Article 12(1) and Directive Article 14(5) both allow deduction to avoid paying twice. In practice:

• Finland. The package travel act 901/2017 provides for deduction. But in D/4320/35/2017 the airline had paid €800 for a flight more than 47 hours late, and KRIL still recommended that TUI Finland pay €251 more: a shortened holiday is not the same loss as EU261's loss of time. Where a tour operator's offer covered the same lost time, the EU261 payment could be deducted (plenary D/239/35/2017).
• Norway. Under pakkereiseloven § 34, compensation under the package act and under transport law is deducted from each other, so the traveller is not overcompensated.
• Denmark. In Pakkerejse-Ankenævnet 17-270, the airline had paid 17,830.56 kr under EU261 for a 24-hour delay. The price reduction would not have been higher, so the board awarded nothing more.

Sunclass's own EU261 FAQ says the airline may deduct what the travel agency already paid you. Tell each company what the other has paid.

Who actually flew your charter

Check the boarding pass or the delay certificate, not just the tour operator's name.

• TUI fly Nordic (TUIfly Nordic AB, Stockholm) flies for TUI in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. Its conditions say flights may be operated by it or by partner companies.
• Norwegian flies charter for TUI from Norway, Sweden and Copenhagen, and expected to run 70 % of TUI's charter flights in the Norwegian market. On those flights, Norwegian is the airline to claim from. See Norwegian refused your compensation.
• Sunclass Airlines (Dragør, Denmark) flies for Nordic Leisure Travel Group: Spies, Ving, Globetrotter and Tjäreborg. In June 2026 Norwegian agreed to buy the group, including Sunclass.

How each airline wants the claim

TUI fly Nordic has its own claim form for Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway. Give the tour operator's booking number. A delay certificate is made automatically when the delay is over 3 hours, available within 10 days of your return and for three months after the flight.

The Swedish page says a claim "should" arrive within two months. That is not a legal deadline: Finland's KRIL rejected a two-month limit for EU261 claims in plenary decision D/4498/35/2018. See EU261 time limits in the Nordics.

Sunclass Airlines has its own claim form in Danish and Swedish. It asks you to claim in writing after you arrive, with the booking number and number of passengers, and says replies take 6 to 8 weeks. Delay certificates are at delays.sunclassairlines.dk.

What the rules say back

Sunclass's FAQ lists strikes and manufacturing defects as extraordinary, without qualification. That goes too far:

• Strikes by the airline's own staff are not extraordinary (Airhelp v SAS C-28/20). See strike cancellation.
• Technical faults are normal operations (Wallentin-Hermann C-549/07). Only a hidden design defect that existed at the time and that the airline could not detect or control can be extraordinary (Matkustaja A v Finnair C-385/23). In KRIL 251/35/2013, a rare hydraulic fault on a Helsinki–Rhodes charter with no spare aircraft still gave €400 per passenger. See technical fault.

Which board

For the EU261 claim against the airline, use the board for the country where the disruption happened. TUI fly Nordic is Swedish and Sunclass is Danish, so in Finland contact ECC Finland before KRIL. In Sweden, ARN handles flight and package cases in the same travel department; it may decline a non-resident's complaint about a non-Swedish airline, and then you use the ECC in your own country. Transportklagenemnda takes any flight to, from or within Norway, via www.reiselivsforum.no. In Denmark, use Trafikstyrelsen with MitID for the flight, and Pakkerejse-Ankenævnet for the package. See the Nordic complaint boards.

For the package claim, complain to the tour operator, and do it on the spot without undue delay: ARN has said package complaints must generally be raised on site.

Step by step

1. Find out who flew you and claim EU261 from that airline in writing, per passenger.
2. Claim a price reduction from the tour operator if you lost holiday time, and tell it what the airline paid.
3. Wait for the answers: about 4 weeks in Sweden and Norway, 6 weeks in Denmark. See airline not responding.
4. Go to the right board for each claim.

Worth it: arrival over 3 hours late because of a technical fault or a strike by the airline's own staff. Weaker: a tour operator payment that already covered the same lost time. Offered a voucher? See voucher instead of compensation. Not sure? Try the rejection checker.

Appeal My Flight writes the reply to the airline and the board complaint for €29 per booking, however many passengers. You send it yourself and keep the payout. We cannot promise an outcome.

FAQ

The tour operator says the delay is the airline's problem. Is that right?

For EU261 compensation, yes: claim from the airline that flew you. A price reduction for lost holiday time is still the tour operator's responsibility.

Can I get both EU261 compensation and a price reduction?

Sometimes. Where both pay for the same lost time, one is usually deducted from the other.

My TUI holiday was flown by Norwegian. Who do I claim from?

Norwegian, as the operating airline. Claim the package price reduction from TUI.

Got the airline's reply? Paste it into the rejection checker and see what EU court rulings say about their excuse.