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Air Travellers (Financial Protection)

Answer

The Air Travel Organisers' Licence (ATOL) regulations use the same definition of ““package”” as the Package Travel Directive and the UK regulations which implement the Directive to define their coverage in respect of package travel organisers. Any tour operator which provides flight-based packages has no choice but to hold an ATOL or to be acting for a disclosed principal which holds an ATOL. If a tour operator were to legally operate outside of the ATOL scheme they would need to alter their products in such a way that they no longer constituted a package. Since the definition in the ATOL Regulations and the Directive is the same, it follows that if a product falls outside of one it will fall outside of the other and the UK would have no obligations under the Directive in respect of that business.I am very aware of the views of consumer representatives' on this high profile issue for the leisure travel sector. I understand they have made those views known to both the Civil Aviation Authority and the Department for Transport as they consider the arguments for change to the current regime.The Civil Aviation Authority has undertaken extensive work in order to assess consumers' understanding of financial protection in this market. This assessment was reported in the CAA's advice to the Government (Financial Protection for Air Travellers and Package Holiday Makers in the Future, CAA Advice to Government, July 2004) and in their consultation document of July 2003. These reported the results of their consultation with consumer organisations and also the results of research carried out for the CAA into customer expectations and their perceptions of protection in the holiday market (Financial Protection for Air Holiday, Final Report: NFO Transport and Tourism). These documents and reports are available at www.atol.org.uk.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

8295; 436 c49W

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Consumers Aviation Protection