Air Travel Organisers' Licensing (ATOL) is a

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) scheme to give financial protection to people who have purchased

package holiday A package tour, package vacation, or package holiday comprises transport and accommodation advertised and sold together by a vendor known as a tour operator. Other services may be provided such as a rental car, activities or outings during the ...

s and flights from a member

tour operator A tour operator is a business that typically combines and organizes lodging, accommodations, meals, sightseeing and transportation components, in order to create a package tour. They advertise and produce brochures to promote their products, holi ...

Corporate function

The majority of UK tour operators are required to hold an ATOL licence, without which they may not legally sell air travel. ATOL-licensed firms will have had their business practices inspected by the CAA. An ATOL licensed tour operator must also obtain insurance bonds from the CAA. The aim of this is to provide refunds to travellers affected by any event which causes the airline to be unable to provide travel for its customers, and to arrange for flights (in addition to accommodation and other items which may be included in a package holiday) to return home those already abroad at the time.

History

In the 1960s, voluntary organisations such as the

Association of British Travel Agents Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

(ABTA) provided a degree of financial protection for air travellers. In 1970, the Federation of Tour Operators (FTO) (then the Tour Operators Study Group) introduced a bonding scheme whereby their members had to obtain bonds to the value of 5% of their annual turnover. In 1972, ABTA followed suit.

Legal requirement

The

Civil Aviation Act 1971 The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is the statutory corporation which oversees and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the United Kingdom. Its areas of responsibility include: * Supervising the issuing of pilots and aircraft engineers ...

established the CAA. Covered under this act was the creation of the original ATOL Regulations. These mandated that all tour operators whose primary mode of transport was by air (but not airlines themselves), must hold an ATOL licence. These regulations came into effect in 1973.

Early practice

On 15 August 1974, the

Court Line Court Line was a 20th-century British Tramp trade, tramp shipping company that was founded in 1905. In the 1960s it diversified into shipbuilding and Air charter, charter aviation. Its merchant shipping interests were based in Port of London, Lo ...

group collapsed. It was the second largest tour operator at the time and its subsidiaries included Clarksons Holidays, Horizon, and Medvillas. Clarksons Holidays held an ATOL licence and was therefore theoretically covered by its insurance bond. Although the 35,000 customers stranded abroad were successfully repatriated under the scheme, there were insufficient funds for the 100,000 people whose holidays had been paid for in advance. This was a blow to consumer confidence and led to considerable media attention. A government fund called the Air Travel Trust has since been introduced to pay for any excess which is not covered by ATOL.

Collapse of Thomas Cook

On 23 September 2019

Thomas Cook Thomas Cook (22 November 1808 – 18 July 1892) was the founder of the travel agency Thomas Cook & Son. He was born into a poor family in Derbyshire and left school at the age of ten to start work as a gardener's boy. He served an appren ...

went into compulsory liquidation, sparking the largest peacetime repatriation in the UK's history. With Thomas Cook being ATOL-protected, the Civil Aviation Authority set about repatriating more than 150,000 British holidaymakers.

References

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External links

About ATOL - CAA
Civil aviation in the United Kingdom Aviation authorities Consumer protection law 1973 establishments in the United Kingdom Consumer protection in the United Kingdom