Thousands of passengers are in line for payouts of €600 (£529) from Emirates for flight delays, after the Supreme Court refused the airline permission to appeal against a ruling on missed connections. The decision is expected to cost the Dubai-based airline millions of pounds in retrospective payments.

The ruling concerns European passengers’ rights legislation on compensation for delays in arrival of three hours or more, known as EC261. It applies in the case of travellers whose outbound flight from the UK arrives in Dubai less than three hours late, but sufficiently late that they miss their onward connection.

Emirates and several other airlines had argued that because the onward flight began outside the European Union, EU rules did not apply.

In October 2017, the Appeal Court rejected Emirates’ appeal on a test case. The airline’s application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected on the grounds that the case did not raise an arguable point of law; the European Court of Justice is deemed to have already provided a clear answer.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it will now progress its enforcement action against Emirates, requiring the airline to amend its policies and practices and to pay claims it had previously refused.

Andrew Haines, the CAA’s chief executive, said: “Emirates’ priority should be looking after its passengers, not finding ways in which they can prevent passengers accessing their rights.

“They have failed in their attempts to overturn the Court of Appeal Judgement, which now means that millions of pounds worth of compensation is due to its customers. It is time for Emirates to pay what is owed.”

Emirates is one of the biggest foreign airlines operating in the UK. It has dozens of flights each week from Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow to Dubai, with Stansted soon to join the network.

An Emirates spokesperson told The Independent: “We are very disappointed by the Supreme Court’s ruling denying us leave to appeal against the earlier judgement of the High Court in relation to the application of Regulation EC261 to flights of non-Community carriers originating outside of the EU.