Turkey (SHY-YOLCU): flight delay and cancellation compensation

• Every flight departing from an airport in Turkey, on any airline.
• Flights into Turkey from outside, on a Turkish airline: Turkish Airlines, Pegasus, AJet, SunExpress, Corendon Airlines, Freebird.
• Flights from the EU or the UK to Turkey are covered by EU261 or UK261, on any airline; on a Turkish airline SHY-YOLCU applies too, but you are paid only once.

Your nationality does not matter.

A delay of 3 hours or more at your final destination pays only:

• on flights from 10 December 2024, when the rule came into force;
• when the cause is technical or operational, that is the airline’s own: a fault, a crew problem, its scheduling.

Bad weather, air traffic control or a security event never pay a delay under the Turkish rules. A strike can be argued either way: the airline may cite it, and it depends on the evidence.

Compensation is due when you were told less than 14 days before departure, unless the new flight kept you close to your original times:

• told 7 to 14 days before: leaving at most 2 hours earlier and arriving at most 4 hours later;
• told less than 7 days before: leaving at most 1 hour earlier and arriving at most 2 hours later.

The airline does not pay for extraordinary circumstances it could not avoid, and it may halve the amount when the new flight gets you there within 2, 3 or 4 hours of the original time, depending on the distance.

• €100 for domestic flights within Turkey.
• €250 for international flights up to 1,500 km.
• €400 from 1,500 to 3,500 km, €600 beyond.

The amounts are set in euros and paid in Turkish lira at the exchange rate of the day of payment.

Whatever the cause, once the departure is 2, 3 or 4 hours late depending on the distance: drinks and meals while you wait, and a hotel with the transfer to it when you have to stay overnight (SHY-YOLCU, Articles 7 and 10).

Write to the airline with your flight number and date, your booking reference, what happened and the amount, citing SHY-YOLCU (Articles 6 or 7 and 8).

If it refuses or does not answer, you can complain to the Turkish Directorate General of Civil Aviation (SHGM).

Dueply checks flights under SHY-YOLCU too and prepares the letter, with no commission.