Budget airlines is Europe have figured out an evil approach to avoiding delays.
Airlines are eligible to pay compensation for delays longer than two hours. So they start boarding the aircraft 1.5 hrs after departure, close the doors at the 2 hour mark and then spend the next hours sitting on the tarmac while depriving the passengers of food and drink.
This strategy would save them having to issue food vouchers at the airport, but not delay compensation per se which is based on arrival time at the destination gate.
Or even worse, they load all the passengers into a bus and... just leave them there for an hour or so. And of course the buses are packed with most passengers standing.
The airlines tend to avoid paying compensation by making the whole processes as confusing as possible. What the rules actually say has less affect on the outcome than you might expect.
