With summer on the way, many Britons are looking forward to a well-deserved summer holiday.
However, holidays do not tend to come cheap – with the average cost for a family of four to go away totalling £2,851, according to Travelex.
This can be a major expense for many British families, who save throughout the year to be able to afford to go abroad.
It is important then, when paying for a holiday, that consumers have certain rights which protect them from being stranded abroad or losing money, if that travel company ceases trading. This is what ATOL does.
Standing for ‘Air Travel Organiser’s Licence’, this is a statutory scheme which protects customers who have booked holidays with a UK travel company, in case they go bust.
By law, every UK travel company which sells air holidays and flights is required to hold an ATOL.
It covers all overseas air holidays where a flight and accommodation have been booked together. It also includes cruises and car hire, if booked with flights.
ATOL is run by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which is funded by contributions from travel companies, who are required by law to pay £2.50 into the scheme for every person they book on a holiday.
The money contributed creates a fund that is tapped into by the CAA when things go wrong.
It means that if the company collapses before you leave the UK or are on holiday, the scheme will either provide you will a full refund or make sure you can finish your holiday and return home safely.
This is what happened last October, when airline Monarch went bust, disrupting the travel arrangements of 860,000 passengers.
As a result, the UK Government had no option but to launch Britain’s largest ever peacetime repatriation operation to bring 110,000 stranded Britons home.
In the aftermath, the CAA declared it expected over 32,000 ATOL package holiday claims, amounting to £21 million in refunds for holidaymakers who should not be out of pocket.
At the time, Andrew Haines, chief executive of the CAA, commented: “Those who bought a package holiday from Monarch are ATOL protected, which means they have full financial protection and are entitled to a full refund of the cost of their holiday”.
Customers can easily check if their flight or holiday is ATOL protected.When booking, they should have receive an ATOL Certificate either by e-mail or post when any payment is made towards the holiday or flight.
