Wizz Air at Bucharest (OTP): compensation and your rights

Short answer: A flight that departs Bucharest Otopeni is an EU departure, so EU261 (Regulation (EC) 261/2004) applies. If Wizz Air gets you to your final destination three or more hours late, cancels at short notice, or denies you boarding involuntarily — and cannot prove a genuine extraordinary circumstance — you can claim a fixed EUR 250, EUR 400 or EUR 600 depending on the distance. In Romania this is enforced by the national enforcement body, the consumer-protection authority ANPC, and compensation is paid in euros. Your inbound leg from the UK is a different story: it falls under UK261 and pays in pounds.

Which rulebook applies when you fly from Bucharest

The regime is set by the departure airport, not by where the airline is registered or where you live.

• Leaving Bucharest (OTP): EU/EEA departure → EU261, amounts in euros, and the Romanian national enforcement body handles complaints against the airline.
• Leaving a UK airport on the way back (for example London Luton or London Gatwick): UK departure → UK261 (the retained version of the same law), amounts in pounds, enforced by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

That is why a single Bucharest–London return can be governed by two systems at once. Keep the outbound and inbound flights as separate claims.

How much you can claim from OTP

EU261 pays a fixed sum by great-circle distance to your final destination:

• EUR 250 — up to 1,500 km.
• EUR 400 — 1,500 to 3,500 km, and any intra-EU flight over 1,500 km.
• EUR 600 — over 3,500 km (outside the intra-EU rule).

For real Wizz Air routes out of Bucharest, that works out roughly as:

• OTP → Rome, Milan (around 1,150–1,350 km): EUR 250.
• OTP → Dortmund, London, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris (around 1,570–2,500 km): EUR 400 (Dortmund sits just over the 1,500 km line, and any intra-EU flight over 1,500 km is EUR 400 regardless).
• Only the longest routes beyond 3,500 km reach EUR 600, so most Bucharest departures sit in the EUR 250–EUR 400 range.

The compensation trigger is arrival three or more hours late at your final destination (Sturgeon, C-402/07; Folkerts, C-11/11), a cancellation notified at short notice, or involuntary denied boarding. A long delay is treated like a cancellation once you land three-plus hours late. You can put your own distance and delay into the flight compensation calculator to see the band before you file.

Note that EUR 300 is not a statutory amount. It only appears when the airline re-routes you quickly enough to earn the Article 7(2) 50% reduction (for example EUR 600 halved to EUR 300 on a long route re-routed inside the set window).

Four different things you can claim — don't mix them up

1. Compensation (Article 7) — the fixed EUR 250/400/600 above, for the disruption itself.
2. Refund or re-routing (Article 8) — if the flight is cancelled or you give up on a badly delayed one, you choose a refund of the unused ticket in cash within seven days, or re-routing. You do not have to accept WIZZ credit; a voucher is only valid if you actively agree to it. See refund vs WIZZ credit.
3. Right to care (Article 9) — meals and refreshments, and a hotel plus transfers for an overnight, once the wait passes the 2/3/4-hour thresholds by distance. Care is owed even in extraordinary circumstances (McDonagh, C-12/11).
4. Reimbursement of reasonable costs — if Wizz leaves you without care and you buy your own meal or hotel, keep every receipt and claim the reasonable amounts back. This is separate from, and on top of, compensation.

The return leg from the UK is UK261

Wizz Air flies plenty of Romanians home for holidays and back to work in Britain. On the UK-departing leg — London Luton, London Gatwick, Birmingham, Liverpool — you are under UK261, and the bands are in pounds:

• GBP 220 — up to 1,500 km.
• GBP 350 — 1,500 to 3,500 km (this covers London–Bucharest, around 2,100 km).
• GBP 520 — over 3,500 km.

The escalation body is the UK CAA, not ANPC. Wizz Air holds a UK air operator's certificate through Wizz Air UK, so a UK-based claim is handled entirely within the British system. There is more detail in UK261 vs EU261 — which applies.

Extraordinary circumstances

Genuinely extraordinary events — severe weather over Otopeni, an air-traffic-control restriction, a security incident — remove the compensation but never the right to care. The airline has to prove it. Routine technical faults do not qualify (Wallentin-Hermann, C-549/07; van der Lans, C-257/14), and a strike by the airline's own staff is not extraordinary either (Airhelp v SAS, C-28/20). If Wizz simply blames "operational reasons" without evidence, that is not enough to refuse you.

Who you actually claim against

You claim against the operating carrier — the airline that actually flew, or should have flown, the aircraft (Wirth, C-532/17). Wizz Air operates through several entities — Wizz Air Hungary, Wizz Air Malta, Wizz Air UK, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi — so check the carrier named on your booking. For a Bucharest departure you escalate to Romania's national enforcement body; for a UK departure you escalate to the UK CAA. Match the regulator to the airport you left from.

Baggage is a completely separate regime

Damaged, delayed or lost luggage is not an EU261/UK261 matter at all — it falls under the Montreal Convention 1999. Liability is capped at about 1,519 SDR per passenger (the figure in force since 28 December 2024, roughly EUR 1,850 / GBP 1,600 and moving with exchange rates). This is compensation for proven loss up to the cap, not an automatic payout, and it is never the 250/400/600 flight figure.

Act fast: file a Property Irregularity Report (PIR) at the OTP baggage desk before you leave the airport. Then write to the airline within 7 days for damage and 21 days for delay (counted from when you got the bag back). A bag missing around 21 days is generally treated as lost. You have a two-year long-stop to bring a court claim. More in delayed and lost baggage.

How to claim from Bucharest, step by step

1. At the airport, get written confirmation of the delay or cancellation and the reason, and keep boarding passes and receipts.
2. Work out your distance band and whether it is EU261 (OTP departure) or UK261 (UK departure).
3. Send a written claim to the operating Wizz Air entity, stating the flight, the delay length at final destination, and the amount.
4. If Wizz refuses or ignores you, escalate to ANPC in Romania for OTP departures, or the UK CAA for UK departures.
5. If that fails, court is the last step; the Wizz Air delayed-flight guide and the main Wizz Air compensation hub walk through the wording.

FAQ

My Wizz flight from Bucharest to London was five hours late — how much?

London is roughly 2,100 km from OTP, in the 1,500–3,500 km band, so EUR 400 under EU261 — provided the delay was not a proven extraordinary circumstance.

The return from London to Bucharest was cancelled. Same currency?

No. That leg departs the UK, so it is UK261 in pounds — GBP 350 for the London–Bucharest distance — and you escalate to the UK CAA, not ANPC.

Wizz only offered me WIZZ credit. Can I insist on cash?

Yes. For a cancelled or abandoned flight, Article 8 gives you a cash refund within seven days. A voucher is optional and only counts if you agree to it — a WIZZ product refund is a separate commercial matter from your statutory rights.

Are WIZZ Flex or Priority fees refundable as part of my claim?

Those are commercial add-ons governed by Wizz's own terms. Their refundability is separate from EU261/UK261 compensation and from Montreal baggage liability — don't count them as part of a disruption claim.

It was a thunderstorm — can I still get anything?

Compensation may be off the table if Wizz proves the weather was genuinely extraordinary, but your right to care (meals, and a hotel for an overnight) still stands, and any reasonable costs you cover yourself remain reimbursable.

Sources

• Regulation (EC) 261/2004, full text — EUR-Lex
• UK Civil Aviation Authority, delays and cancellations — caa.co.uk
• Romanian consumer-protection authority (ANPC) — anpc.ro
• European Commission, air passenger rights — Your Europe
• Montreal Convention baggage liability — IATA baggage information

Position stated as of 2026; the proposed 2026 EU261 reform (longer delay thresholds, a nine-month claim window, a 30-day airline response) is a proposal and not yet in force. This is general information, not legal advice.