THE EU Court of Justice has ruled that airlines passengers who suffer delays of more than three hours have the right to compensation equivalent to those whose flights are cancelled, as it has considered that the loss of time and other problems caused by such a delay are the same as in the case of a cancellation.

Passengers whose flights are cancelled with little or no warning and who land more than three hours later than expected have the right to compensation between 250 and 600 and an alternative flight, and now, so do passengers whose flights are more than three hours late. However, the airline is not obliged to compensate passengers if it can prove that the circumstances that led to the delay or cancellation were beyond their control and could not have been avoided. Technical problems with the aircraft cannot be considered beyond the airline’s control, unless they are derived from anything other than the normal use of the plane.

Flights can only be considered cancelled if the passengers are taken to another flight later than the estimated departure time of the one they had originally reserved (Via Original Source)