Western Balkans — air passenger rights under the European Common Aviation Area Agreement

The clocks it starts

• Two years for a Montreal Convention claim (Art. 35)This bars the Convention claim for proven delay damages on international carriage. It does not bar the statutory compensation, which runs on the national limitation period instead — but the two are usually claimed in the same letter, so treat the shorter one as the deadline that matters.Montreal Convention 1999, Art. 35(1) — Art. 35(1)Limitation period

What it entitles you to, beyond money

• Meals, communications and a hotel while you waitThe duty of care is the part of this family of regimes that bites hardest in practice and is most often ignored: meals and refreshments in reasonable relation to the waiting time, two telephone calls or emails, and hotel accommodation with transfers where an overnight stay becomes necessary. It applies from two hours on a short flight, three in the middle band and four on a long one, and it applies whatever caused the disruption — including weather, which carriers use to refuse everything. Keep every receipt; unprovided care is recoverable.Art. 3 and Annex I, Section on consumer protection
• At five hours, you may abandon the journey and take your money backThis right is express rather than argued, and almost nobody uses it. Once the delay reaches five hours you may decline to travel at all and require reimbursement of the full ticket price for the parts of the journey not made, together with the parts already made if the flight no longer serves any purpose in relation to your original travel plan — plus, where relevant, a flight back to your first point of departure at the earliest opportunity.Art. 3 and Annex I, Section on consumer protection
• Montreal Convention damages for delay (international carriage)On international carriage between States Parties, Art. 19 of the Montreal Convention makes the carrier liable for the damage the delay actually caused you — the unused hotel night, the missed onward booking, the extra meals and transport — unless it proves it took all measures that could reasonably be required. It is capped at 6,303 SDR per passenger (the figure ICAO set with effect from 28 December 2024) and it requires receipts, not a formula. This claim exists independently of any national scheme, and airlines never mention it. The right is extinguished two years after arrival under Art. 35.Art. 19, Art. 22(1)

What the other side will say

Each of these is a refusal this regime lets a counterparty attempt, paired with the answer to it. Reading them before you write is worth more than any amount of polish on the letter itself.

Where to take it next

1. 01Written claim to the airlineWrite to the carrier naming the national law transposing Regulation 261/2004 under the European Common Aviation Area Agreement and Art. 7(1) of Regulation 261/2004, the flight number and date, the distance band and the figure. Ask for payment by bank transfer within 14 days and say you will complain to the regulator if it is not made.Claim direct·typically 30 days
2. 02The national civil aviation authority of the departure stateEach ECAA party designates a national enforcement body for passenger rights: the Civil Aviation Directorate of the Republic of Serbia, the Albanian Civil Aviation Authority, the Civil Aviation Agency of Montenegro, the Civil Aviation Agency of North Macedonia, and the Bosnia and Herzegovina Directorate of Civil Aviation. Complain to the one for the country you departed from, in writing, naming the ECAA Agreement and your national transposing law.Regulator·typically 90 days
3. 03Civil court claimBinding on themA civil claim in the courts of the departure state. Sums of EUR 250 to 600 fall within the small-value procedures in each of these jurisdictions, and consumer claims generally attract reduced or waived court fees.Small claims·typically 180 days