Holiday safeguards set to kick in

09/02/12

By Paul McGurk

It's a holiday nightmare - you've saved up, you've bought the flip-flops and shades, you've sorted out your travel insurance - and then your tour operator goes bust. What to do?

Well, safeguards against tour operator failure are to be unveiled by the Government, potentially protecting as many as six million more holidays each year.

One option will be to bring "flight-plus" holidays - unprotected package deals - under the control of the Air Travel Organisers' Licensing scheme. A standard certificate for passengers, letting them know that their trip is protected by Atol, is another measure under consideration.

The Civil Aviation Authority's Atol scheme was designed to protect people taking package holidays - with the CAA initiating flights whenever operators went bust. However, a rise in deals which only included flights, booked over the internet, meant that a rising number of holidays did not fall under Atol's framework - which also looks to refund people whose trips were cancelled thanks to tour operator failures.

April 30 will see the alterations implemented, although Atol could be subject to more changes under the Civil Aviation Bill.

This includes methods of including holidays sold by airlines, on top of powers to bring holiday deals done under an "agent for the consumer" basis beneath the umbrella.