The key facts

  • AirAdvisor analyzed 68,283 claims against 59 airlines for January–June 2026; the ranking includes 22 carriers with more than 100 claims each
  • TAP Air Portugal was named the best: 88.7% of claims resolved, 0.6% of cases in court, average wait for payment — 10 days
  • TAROM was the worst: only 3.3% of 122 claims successful, 46.7% of cases sent to court, wait of up to 110 days

Airline honesty ranking based on claims data

AirAdvisor, a service specializing in recovering compensation for flight delays and baggage problems, has compiled a ranking of European airlines by their willingness to pay passengers the amounts they are owed. It is based on 68,283 claims filed through the service between January and June 2026 against 59 airlines. Only carriers with more than 100 claims made it into the final list — 22 companies in total. The ranking took into account the share of resolved claims and the number of cases sent to court after a refusal or being ignored. The data was published on the AirAdvisor website, as reported by Euronews.

Leaders and laggards

TAP Air Portugal has been named Europe's most 'honest' airline: it resolved 88.7% of claims, only 0.6% of cases went to court, and the average wait for payment was 10 days. Second place went to LOT Polish Airlines — not a single claim was taken to court, with a successful resolution rate of 82.8%. Third place belongs to Wizz Air (72.4% of claims resolved, 1.2% of cases in court). Rounding out the top five are Iberia (67.3%) and Brussels Airlines, against which no case went to court. They are followed by Air France, Aegean Airlines, KLM, ITA Airways and SAS.

The worst at paying out

At the other end of the ranking is Romania's national carrier TAROM: of 122 claims, only 3.3% have been successful so far, while 46.7% of cases were taken to court; the average wait for payment reaches 110 days. Second from the bottom is Aeroitalia, with a resolution rate of 0.6% and 28.2% of cases sent to court. The third worst position went to Europe's largest airline, Ryanair: of 991 confirmed claims, only 2.1% were resolved, and 17.8% of cases went to court.

What you should know about compensation and the ranking's limitations

Payout amounts are regulated by Regulation (EU) No 261/2004: €250 for flights up to 1,500 km with a delay of more than two hours, €400 for flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km with a delay of more than three hours, and €600 for all other flights with a delay of more than four hours. A claim can be filed independently or through specialized companies such as AirAdvisor. At the same time, the compilers emphasize a significant limitation: the ranking reflects only claims filed through this service, so the airlines' overall resolution rates and shares of court cases may differ from the figures presented.