The UK Civil Aviation Authority has published the emerging findings of its programme for ATOL reform. |
The regulator is seeking further information from stakeholders to support its work in finalising its proposals for changes to the ATOL financial protection scheme.
The Civil Aviation Authority, which runs the ATOL scheme, proposed in its first consultation changes that are intended to ensure consistently better protection of consumers’ money by travel businesses and, as a result, improve the financial resilience of the ATOL scheme overall. It wants to do this alongside continuing to secure the benefits for consumers from a competitive travel market with choice for consumers. At present, some ATOL protected travel businesses use their customers’ advance payments for their holidays to fund their own operations before customers have travelled. This has been a long-standing practice in the industry, but it may incentivise some businesses not to put in place sufficiently robust financing arrangements to ensure that they can deliver the customer’s holiday. In this latest update, the UK Civil Aviation Authority provides further detail on how it envisages the options for reform could work in practice, recognising that businesses within the sector have different structures and ways of operating. The regulator’s request for information does not set a final decision on its preferred option for reform, although it sets out the Civil Aviation Authority’s emerging findings to date. The intention being to facilitate meaningful engagement – and to target the beginning of implementation of the final changes from April 2024. The Civil Aviation Authority’s update provides stakeholders with further information on:
Paul Smith, Consumer Director at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said:
The Civil Aviation Authority is asking for comments and feedback on these aspects as it finalises it proposed options for reform in 2023. The closing date for feedback is 24 March 2023. |
UK Civil Aviation Authority Launches Next Stage of ATOL Reform
The UK Civil Aviation Authority has published the emerging findings of its programme for ATOL reform
24 January 2023