Your airline went bankrupt: what you can still recover
Even when your airline is bankrupt or in liquidation, up to EUR 600 per passenger may, depending on your situation, still be recoverable. When an airline disappears the panic is understandable: ticket paid, flight cancelled, nobody to talk to. But not everything is lost. You first need to separate three things that are often confused.
Scope of this guide: the insolvency steps described here follow French procedure. Other countries have their own rules and deadlines, so check the rules of the airline's home country.
Three different sums, three different remedies
When a flight goes wrong with an airline in difficulty, several amounts can be involved. They are not claimed in the same way.
- The EC261/2004 compensation. It penalises a cancellation or a long delay. Depending on the distance, it can be EUR 250, 400 or up to EUR 600 per passenger. It has nothing to do with the price of the ticket: it is a fixed amount. See the compensation amounts.
- The ticket refund. This is the price you paid for a flight that did not take place. It is not compensation: it is your money coming back.
- Your extra expenses. Hotel, meals, a last-minute rerouting on another airline. Under conditions, these can be the subject of a separate claim.
A liquidation does not change the nature of these rights. It only changes how you assert them.
Your flight was disrupted BEFORE the liquidation
This is the most favourable case. If your flight was cancelled or heavily delayed while the airline was still operating, and it meets the conditions of the regulation, a compensation claim may have arisen at that moment.
That claim does not vanish because the airline closes its doors afterwards. It becomes one claim among others in the insolvency procedure. In practice it has to be declared to the liquidator within the legal deadline, often two months after the opening of the procedure is published in France. It is technical and timed, and a badly drafted declaration can be rejected.
The airline has simply disappeared
If the airline stopped all activity and your flight does not fall under EC261, the remedy is mostly a refund, through other channels:
- Your bank card. If you paid by card, a chargeback procedure may let you recover the ticket price from your bank. Time limits are short, so act fast and ask your bank for its deadline.
- Your insurance. Travel insurance, cancellation cover, or the protection attached to a premium card can cover all or part of the ticket.
- The agency or booking platform. If you booked through an intermediary, some have their own financial guarantee.
- A declaration of claim to the liquidator, in parallel, for the refund of the ticket itself.
These routes sometimes add up. The classic mistake is to use only one, too late.
What traps travellers
Three reflexes are costly:
- Waiting. Chargeback deadlines and claim-declaration deadlines are firm. Every week counts.
- Accepting a voucher. Some airlines in trouble offer a credit note instead of a refund. A voucher on an airline that is wobbling is worth little. See how to refuse a voucher and ask for cash.
- Mixing up the remedies. Asking the liquidator for a refund does not make you give up the EC261 compensation, and the other way round. They are two separate things.
Why go through Robin des Airs
These files combine several parallel procedures, each with its own deadlines. Robin des Airs was created for families of the diaspora travelling between Africa and Europe, who have neither the time nor the means to face a liquidator alone.
The principle: nothing upfront, free check. If your claim succeeds, you receive 75% at the amicable stage; our share rises by 15 points if the case has to go to litigation, with lawyer, bailiff and procedure costs included and advanced by Robin des Airs. We promise no result and no guaranteed timing: an airline in liquidation remains uncertain ground. But we know which routes to activate, in which order, without you having to spend a euro.
See also: The airline refuses to pay: next steps.