The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has today written to more than 100 travel businesses in the UK that it believes may be continuing to sell air packages without the protection of an Air Travel Organisers’ Licence (ATOL).In January this year, the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) issued guidance on what constitutes a package for the purposes of the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992. This guidance was prepared in conjunction with other interested UK government departments and was supported by the main travel trade associations in the UK.Since the publication of the guidance, the CAA, which administers the ATOL)protection scheme, has been in discussion with both current licence holders and large travel companies that it believes need to hold an ATOL in accordance with the terms of the new guidance. As a result, there has been an increase of more than 400,000 protected seats added to ATOL licences.In addition, the CAA has continued to investigate other travel firms that may need an ATOL and the letter, which is being sent to them today, sets out the legal position and invites them to apply for a licence. Further information about ATOL is available on the ATOL website at www.atol.org.uk.Source: CAA; full article here>>.
