Insurance for all holidaymakers

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Tue, 21 Sep 04

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has advised the government that the UK should introduce urgent legislation to protect holidaymakers.

It follows research into how financial protection schemes work in other countries, which lead the CAA's Consumer Protection Group to recommend that more needs to be done to extend financial protection for travellers in the UK.

The CAA wants requirements that currently apply to tour operators to be extended to include flights sold directly by airlines, and also to accommodation provided through internet sites linked to those of airlines.

The CAA report, covering the implementation of the Package Travel Directive in Europe, Australia, Canada, USA and Japan, found that some form of insolvency protection for air travellers is a legal requirement in all the studied countries.

Additionally, as a minimum, all of the schemes provide refunds but not all organise repatriation, though most European states do.

Currently Air Travel Organisers' Licensing (ATOL) gives comprehensive protection to holidaymakers against losing money or being stranded abroad.

All tour operators selling flights and air holidays must hold an ATOL licence from the CAA, but it now wants this type of licensing to be extended further.

Over the past 17 years, ATOL has managed over 300 tour operator failures, rescuing over 190,000 people and giving refunds to more than a million others at a total cost of £160 million. In the year to March 2004, nearly 14,000 people were rescued or refunded, at a cost of £3.7 million.

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