Flight delayed or cancelled between Tunisia and Europe: your rights and the figures

A long delay is more than an inconvenience: on some flights it entitles you to assistance, and even to compensation. But you need to know whether your flight is covered. This guide summarises the European rules and sets them against what we measured on 96,616 flights at Tunis-Carthage, Djerba-Zarzis and Monastir airports from October 2025 to September 2026.

How common are long delays?

	Over one year	That is about
Flights more than 2 hours late	5.3%	13 a day
Flights 3 hours late or more	2.6% (2,290 flights)	6 a day
Flights 5 hours late or more	0.8%	2 a day
Cancelled flights	1.2% (1,145 flights)	3 a day

For a traveller, the risk is low: about one flight in forty is three hours late or more. But it varies a lot between airlines.

Airline	Flights recorded	3 hours late or more	Cancelled
Tunisair	21,635	6.3%	0.4%
Tunisair Express	7,078	5.6%	5.1%
Libyan Wings	2,610	3.6%	0.9%
Air Algérie	1,645	2.0%	0.7%
Nouvelair	21,486	0.9%	0.1%
Turkish Airlines	2,207	0.8%	0.0%
Air France	2,591	0.7%	1.0%
Transavia	10,697	0.4%	0.5%
Lufthansa	1,478	0.2%	0.9%

Tunisair alone accounts for 1,285 of the 2,290 flights that were three hours late or more: more than half. At Tunisair Express, which mainly flies domestic routes plus a few flights to Malta and southern Italy, the main risk is cancellation: one flight in twenty.

When does the European regulation apply?

Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 protects air passengers in two cases:

1. Your flight departs from an airport in the European Union, whatever the airline. A Paris → Tunis flight is covered whether it is operated by Tunisair, Nouvelair, Transavia or Air France.
2. Your flight arrives in the European Union and the airline is European. A Tunis → Paris flight is covered if it is operated by Air France or Transavia, but not if it is operated by Tunisair or Nouvelair.

Journey	Tunisair, Nouvelair, other non-EU airlines	Air France, Transavia, Lufthansa, other EU airlines
Europe → Tunisia	Covered	Covered
Tunisia → Europe	Not covered	Covered

Switzerland, Norway and Iceland apply the same rules, and the United Kingdom has applied an equivalent version since Brexit. For flights that are not covered, the airline's conditions of carriage apply.

What you can claim

Assistance (meals, drinks, communication, a hotel if needed). The airline must provide it from a 2-hour departure delay for flights of 1,500 km or less, from 3 hours for flights of 1,500 to 3,500 km, and from 4 hours beyond that. It is owed even in extraordinary circumstances.

A refund. From a 5-hour delay, you can give up the journey and ask for the ticket to be refunded. If the flight is cancelled, you can choose between a refund and being rerouted.

Compensation. If you reach your destination 3 hours late or more, or if your flight is cancelled less than 14 days before departure, you may be entitled to:

Flight distance	Compensation
1,500 km or less	€250
1,500 to 3,500 km	€400
More than 3,500 km (except flights within the EU)	€600

The distance is measured in a straight line between the two airports. Tunis – Paris (about 1,470 to 1,490 km) and Tunis – Frankfurt stay just under 1,500 km: €250. Monastir – Paris (about 1,600 km), Djerba – Paris (about 1,800 km), Tunis – Brussels and Tunis – London are over that threshold: €400. To Italy and the south of France, it is €250.

Compensation is not owed if the airline proves the delay was caused by extraordinary circumstances it could not have avoided: dangerous weather, an air traffic control decision, a security risk, a strike outside the airline… An ordinary technical problem or a crew delay is generally not enough.

Careful with how the delay is measured

For compensation, the delay is measured on arrival, when one of the aircraft doors opens (Court of Justice of the EU, 2014), not at take-off. The times published by OACA, which we display, are take-off and landing times. A flight that lands 2 hours 50 minutes late may therefore pass 3 hours by the time the doors open. Conversely, a flight that leaves very late can make up some time in the air.

What to do in practice

• At the airport, ask the airline desk for the meal vouchers or hotel you are entitled to, and keep all your documents (boarding passes, receipts).
• Write down the actual times: your flight's page on Tunisia Airports (for example through the Tunis-Carthage arrivals) shows the recorded landing time.
• Claim in writing from the airline, giving the flight number, the date and the delay. Airlines must inform passengers of their rights.
• If you get no answer, you can contact the national body responsible for passenger rights in the country of departure or arrival (the CAA in the UK, the DGAC in France, the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt in Germany), or the relevant alternative dispute resolution body.

Method and limits

The figures come from the schedules published by OACA for Tunis-Carthage, Djerba-Zarzis and Monastir airports, collected every 30 minutes by Tunisia Airports from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026. Each departure and each arrival counts as one flight. The delay is the take-off or landing delay; only flights that actually took off or landed are included in the delay percentages. Codeshare flights are counted only once. This guide summarises Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 as interpreted by the Court of Justice of the EU; it is not legal advice, and each case depends on its circumstances. Tunisia Airports is an independent website, not affiliated with OACA or with the airlines mentioned.