After a long and evolving 50 years of financial protection through the Air Travel Organisers’ License (ATOL) scheme, this week the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is celebrating with a new consumer awareness campaign.
To bring to light the changes and success of travel protection over the past half-century, the CAA has released this consumer awareness campaign to promote consumers to be well-versed in how their holiday can be protected. ATOL has been protecting flight-based package holidays for consumers to reduce the overwhelming financial issues travel consumers have previously faced.
This campaign from the CAA begins this week and is set to continue to build awareness throughout the year and into January 2024 in time for the peak booking season.
According to statistics displayed by the CAA in celebration of ATOL’s 50th anniversary, the ATOL scheme has protected over 26 million travellers that booked flight packages in the most recent 12-month licensing period. This includes almost £28 billion protected within those bookings.
Plus, with all the rapid changes that have been ever present in the travel industry over the past 50 years, there are now 1,600 ATOL holders in comparison with the 274 when the ATOL scheme was first instigated.
The interim-joint chief executive of the CAA, Paul Smith, said, “It’s been an incredible 50 years for the ATOL scheme and, while the sector has changed since 1973, ATOL has remained a vital companion financially protecting millions of consumers, providing much-needed support when their holiday company ceased to trade.
“Booking a package financially protected by ATOL continues to offer reassurance to consumers that, should the worst happen, they will be helped to get home and not left out of pocket.”
So, if you’d like to learn more about how your consumers’ monies are protected with Protected Trust Services (PTS) and how we support excellent travel businesses, check out our pages. Or you can get in touch with the lovely PTS team by calling 0207 190 9988, emailing us at ask@protectedtrustservices.com, or finding us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.