Delayed or cancelled at Marrakech airport: what you are owed

The rules follow the airline that operates the flight, not the one that sold you the ticket, and where the flight lands. From a country outside Europe, such as Morocco, EU261 covers you only on an airline licensed in an EU country (or Norway, Iceland or Switzerland) flying to an EU airport. UK261 covers you only on a UK or EU airline flying to the UK.

In practice: Ryanair and its sister airlines, licensed in the EU or the UK, fly Marrakech to Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Poland and Ireland, among others, and to Stansted, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle and Edinburgh, and are covered on all of them, by EU261 into the EU and by UK261 into the UK. Jet2, a UK airline, flies to Stansted, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle and Glasgow under UK261. United's flights to Newark are not covered, and nor are flights on Moroccan airlines to Europe. Check the operating airline on your booking: a codeshare flight number from one airline may be flown by another.

The flight that brought you to Marrakech is a different matter. Every flight leaving an EU airport is covered by EU261, and every flight leaving a UK airport by UK261, whatever the airline, Royal Air Maroc included. So if your outbound was 3 hours or more late, you can claim for it even if your flight home is not covered.

One booking with a change counts as one journey from where it started. The EU Court of Justice ruled in 2018, in a case about a Royal Air Maroc booking from Berlin to Agadir via Casablanca, that a journey which starts in the EU is covered all the way, including a delay on the leg inside Morocco. A return flight from Morocco is not part of that outbound journey: on a non-European airline it is not covered, even on the same booking.

Distances are measured as the crow flies, from where your journey starts to where it ends. From Marrakech, southern Spain, Lisbon, Madrid and Barcelona are under 1,500 km, so €250 under EU261. France beyond Toulouse, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Poland and Dublin are 1,500 to 3,500 km: €400. Every UK airport is in the middle band too: £350 under UK261, from Stansted to Glasgow.

You are owed nothing if you arrive less than 3 hours late, if the airline told you of a cancellation at least 14 days before, or if it proves extraordinary circumstances, such as weather that made flying unsafe or an air traffic control restriction. A technical fault is generally not extraordinary, and nor is a strike by the airline's own staff.

Claiming yourself is free. Write to the airline that operated the flight with your booking reference, flight number, date and what happened, and ask for the compensation under EU Regulation 261/2004 or, for a flight to the UK, UK261. For a flight to the UK, if the airline says no or does not answer within eight weeks, take it to the airline's free, CAA-approved dispute scheme (AviationADR for Ryanair) within 12 months of its final answer, or to the CAA's Passenger Advice and Complaints Team if it belongs to none; a court claim in England and Wales can be brought up to six years after the flight. For a flight to the EU, complain to the national enforcement body of the country where you landed.

Or let AirHelp do it on a no win, no fee basis: if they win, they keep 35% of the compensation including VAT, plus 15% if court action is needed; if they do not win, you pay nothing. Either way, keep your boarding pass, booking confirmation, receipts for anything you bought while waiting, and the reason for the delay the airline gave you.

New EU rules (Regulation (EU) 2026/2202) apply from 23 October 2027; until then, today's rules apply, including to every flight described on this page.