Emirates compensation time limit: how long you have to claim
Short answer: Regulation 261/2004 sets no time limit of its own. How long you have to claim against Emirates is decided by the national law of the country where you would bring the claim — broadly six years in England and Wales, five years in Scotland, three years in Germany, five years in France, and three years in Spain and the Netherlands. Because Rehder (C-204/08) lets you sue in the courts of either the departure or the arrival airport, you sometimes have a choice of limitation periods. Baggage is different and much shorter: the Montreal Convention imposes a hard two-year bar.
Free eligibility check
Check your case in the form
Enter your route, date and type of disruption. We will check whether your case qualifies for a claim under EU 261/2004 or UK261.
What happened to your flight?
Claim up to €600 for a delayed or cancelled flight.
Choose the situation that applies to your flight:
Why there is no single answer
The Court of Justice settled the point in Moré v KLM (C-139/11): the time limit for bringing an action under Regulation 261/2004 is determined by the national law of each Member State on limitation of actions, because the regulation itself is silent. There is no EU-wide two-year or three-year rule, whatever a refusal letter may imply.
That means the question "how long do I have to claim from Emirates" cannot be answered without knowing where the claim would be brought.
The periods that matter for Emirates departures
Emirates flies to Dubai from a wide European and UK network, so these are the jurisdictions most claims sit in:
| Departure country | Limitation period (general) |
|---|---|
| England and Wales | 6 years |
| Scotland | 5 years |
| Germany | 3 years, running to the end of the calendar year in which the claim arose |
| France | 5 years |
| Italy | Commonly treated as 2 years for carriage-by-air claims |
| Spain | 5 years for personal actions generally; shorter periods have been argued for air transport |
| Netherlands | 2 years for carriage claims |
| Austria | 3 years |
| Poland | 1 year for claims arising from a contract of carriage |
These are general positions and national courts have not always applied them uniformly to 261 claims, which is precisely why the safe approach is to claim early rather than research late. Treat any period under three years as a reason to act now.
The German rule deserves a note because Frankfurt and Munich are significant Emirates gateways: the three years generally runs from the end of the calendar year in which the claim arose. A delayed flight in March 2026 therefore runs to 31 December 2029, not to March 2029.
You may have a choice of forum
Rehder (C-204/08) held that, for a claim under Regulation 261/2004, both the place of departure and the place of arrival count as places of performance. Read that ruling with one qualification for this airline: it interprets the EU special jurisdiction rule for contracts, which operates against carriers domiciled in a Member State, and Emirates is domiciled in the UAE. Where the defendant sits outside the EU, the national jurisdiction rules of the country you sue in take over — which in practice still means your own courts and the airline's local establishment, but on a national basis.
That matters here because the forum you can realistically use determines which limitation period you are working against. A Frankfurt–Dubai flight departs Germany, so the German three-year rule is the one to plan around; a Manchester–Dubai flight departs the UK and the six-year period applies. Do not assume that a second forum will be available to rescue a claim that has aged out in the obvious one.
This is not a reason to delay. It is a reason not to give up if one period appears to have expired.
The clock that is genuinely short: baggage
Baggage is not governed by 261 at all. The Montreal Convention 1999 applies, and it sets deadlines that are far tighter and far less forgiving:
- 7 days from receiving the bag to complain in writing about damage.
- 21 days from receiving the bag to complain in writing about delay.
- 2 years from the date of arrival, or the date the aircraft should have arrived, to bring court proceedings. This is a hard bar, not an ordinary limitation period that can be interrupted in the usual ways.
A Property Irregularity Report filed at the airport is what starts the paper trail. Miss the 7 or 21 days and the claim is usually gone regardless of merit. Baggage liability is capped at roughly 1,519 SDR per passenger following the ICAO revision effective 28 December 2024.
What stops the clock, and what does not
Does not stop it: complaining to Emirates, waiting for Customer Affairs to reply, or having a case open with the UK CAA or a national enforcement body. Regulators supervise compliance; in most Member States they cannot suspend a limitation period, and a claim can quietly expire while a complaint file sits open.
Does stop it: issuing court proceedings. In some jurisdictions a formal demand or an acknowledgement of the debt by the airline can also interrupt or restart the period, but the rules are national and technical.
The practical consequence: if you are approaching a limitation date, do not rely on an open regulator complaint to protect you.
Emirates-specific timing points
Claim the outbound, not the return. The most common reason an Emirates claim fails is not timing but scope — a Dubai departure is outside EU261 and UK261 because Emirates is a UAE carrier and the inbound branch of Article 3(1) reaches only EU and UK airlines. No limitation period rescues a claim that was never in scope. See which Emirates flights are covered.
Evidence decays faster than the limitation period. The decisive figure on a delay claim is the doors-open arrival time at your final destination. Two or three years later, boarding passes are lost and airline records are harder to extract. A claim brought within months is materially stronger than the same claim brought within years, even where both are in time.
Emirates' own certificates. Requesting a delayed or cancelled flight certificate early gives you a dated, airline-issued record of the disruption that survives long after your own documents go missing.
FAQ
Emirates says I am out of time because more than two years have passed. Is that right?
Not necessarily. There is no two-year rule in Regulation 261/2004 — Moré (C-139/11) leaves the period to national law, and in England and Wales it is six years. Ask which national limitation rule Emirates relies on and on what basis. A two-year figure is often the Montreal baggage bar being applied to the wrong kind of claim.
Does the period run from the flight or from the refusal?
Generally from when the claim arose — the disrupted flight — not from the airline's later refusal. Waiting for a decision does not extend the period.
My flight was in 2023 and I am in Germany. Am I too late?
If the claim arose in 2023, the three-year German period generally runs to the end of 2026. Act promptly and consider issuing proceedings rather than continuing to correspond.
Does an open CAA complaint protect my claim?
No. Treat a regulator complaint as an escalation tool, not as protection against limitation. Track the deadline separately.
Is the 2026 EU261 reform introducing a claim deadline?
Proposals have included a fixed window for submitting claims, but the reform is not in force. As of 2026, national limitation law still governs.
Related Emirates guides
Sources
- Regulation (EC) 261/2004, EUR-Lex: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32004R0261
- The Air Passenger Rights and Air Travel Organisers' Licensing (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2019/278/made
- Montreal Convention 1999 (ICAO): https://www.icao.int/secretariat/legal/List%20of%20Parties/Mtl99_EN.pdf
- UK Civil Aviation Authority, resolving travel problems: https://www.caa.co.uk/passengers/resolving-travel-problems/
- European Commission, air passenger rights: https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-themes/passenger-rights/air_en
This guide reflects the legal position as of 2026 and is general information, not legal advice. National limitation periods are summarised for orientation and are not a substitute for advice in the relevant jurisdiction; the 2026 EU261 reform is a proposal and not yet in force.