EU Flight delay policy & Compensation

[atcomarkingtime]

Hi...just a question from an air traffic controller!
I recently flew with a Uk airline to an EU destination..a flight of just over 1500km.
The flight departs daily at the same time...and was printed on my ticket. On arrival at the UK airport for the outbound flight, the departure board showed that the departure time had been changed by over 2 hours compared to that on my ticket. I enquired at check-in and the staff said they didn't know about the change and as far as they were concerned it was departing on schedule as usual.
Just as we were leaving the check-in area we were told the departure time had been changed for that day...I asked if it was anything to do with the airline being short of an aircraft due to a recent incident...to be told it was!!
At no time did any departure boards show DELAYED for the flight and it took off some 3 hours later than the time shown on my ticket!
A few appologies were given by the crew for the delay....but no mention of compensation!
Having looked into the situation...it seems there may be a ruling for "delayed flights in the EU"....can anybody here shed some more light on this and does anyone think we have a claim?

[ExXB]

This is another example of the (criminally) poor drafting of the Regulation. There are no references in the regulation at all about schedule changes.

The regulation also sets out time periods before its terms come into effect. I recall that it's two hours for short haul, 3 for medium and 4 for long (I don't have the regulation at my finger tips)

The regulation also sets out the obligation for 'care', meaning food, drinks, hotac if applicable for 'long' delays but does not set out compensation for this. [However the ECJ has thrown a spanner into this saying that under certain circumstances the compensation applicable to cancellations could apply equally to delays - but this is being resisted by the airlines and is being considered on a case-by-case basis.]

In your case, a two hour delay for a 1500km journey - the regulation doesn't apply even if you could argue the schedule change was in fact a delay.