Myanmar National Airways (UB) Flight Disruption & Payout Specialists

What you could be owed

If you reach your final destination 3 hours or more late, or your flight is cancelled without sufficient notice, each passenger is owed a fixed sum set by the distance of the flight:

These amounts are fixed by law. They are not a goodwill gesture and not a voucher. Under Article 7(3) of the Regulation, compensation is payable in cash, by bank transfer, bank order or bank cheque. Myanmar National Airways cannot lawfully substitute air miles, travel credit or discounts on future bookings unless you agree to that in writing. You are free to refuse a voucher and ask for the money.

The sum is per passenger, so a family of four on a flight over 3,500 km is owed four times the single-passenger figure. For some long flights the sum can be halved where you arrive less than 4 hours late (Article 7(2)).

Your delay is counted from when the door opens

In Germanwings v Henning (Case C-452/13, Court of Justice, 2014) the court ruled that the length of a delay is measured by the actual arrival time, which is the moment at least one aircraft door is opened and passengers are allowed to leave. It is not the moment the wheels touch the runway, and it is not the time the aircraft parks.

Airlines often rely on runway or touchdown logs to argue that a flight was under 3 hours late and so falls below the threshold. If you were delayed by around 3 hours, those logs do not decide the claim. Count the time from the scheduled arrival to the moment the cabin door opened at the gate, and keep any evidence of that moment, such as your own notes, messages or a boarding-bridge photo.

This is why our documents ask for your exact door-opening delay in hours and minutes, and prints it on Page 1 next to the Henning citation.

The airline has to prove it was not its fault

The legal burden sits with the airline. To avoid paying, Myanmar National Airways must prove that the delay or cancellation was caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken (Article 5(3)). Genuine examples include extreme weather, security risks and air traffic control restrictions or strikes outside the airline's control.

Ordinary operational problems do not qualify. Technical faults and component wear-and-tear are part of normal airline operation (Wallentin-Hermann, C-549/07, 2008; Huzar v Jet2.com [2014] EWCA Civ 791, 2014), and shortages of crew or other staff are a matter for the airline to plan around. In those cases compensation is legally due.

Our £9.99 documents set out these rules for you: the distance tier, the door-opening delay you measured, the Article 5(3) burden of proof and the case law above, with the total owed for everyone on your booking. A one-line rejection citing “operational reasons” then has to answer a specific, cited claim. It does not guarantee payment, but it makes a blanket rejection much harder to sustain.

Cancellations and the 14-day window

If Myanmar National Airways cancels your flight you are owed the same fixed compensation unless you were told 14 days or more before departure. If you were told less than 14 days ahead, compensation can still be refused where you were offered a suitable alternative flight: departing no more than 2 hours earlier and arriving less than 4 hours later if you were told 7 to 14 days ahead, or departing no more than 1 hour earlier and arriving less than 2 hours later if you were told under 7 days ahead. Whatever the notice, you can choose a refund or re-routing, and you are entitled to meals and, where needed, hotel accommodation.

How long you have to claim

Time limits depend on the country whose law applies to your route, from 1 year to 10 years. Our eligibility check applies the limit for your exact route and flight date before you pay anything.

How you keep 100%

For one flat fee of £9.99 you get the documents. You print them, write your bank details by hand, and send them to Myanmar National Airways yourself. We take no commission and we never collect or store your bank details, so you keep 100% of whatever the airline pays.

FlightPayout is a document-preparation service, not a law firm, and does not guarantee an outcome. This page is general information, not legal advice.