White Knights Ride to the Rescue

It’s like a surgeon bringing someone through a serious operation or a helicopter pilot picking up an injured climber from a remote mountain. Some of the less publicised of the White Knights are the good folk of the Civil Aviation Authority ( the CAA ) who, apart from regulating everything that happens in UK airspace, also run ATOL ( Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing ).

All too often nowadays, travel companies go bust – usually during the peak of the Summer season when many of their customers are already abroad on their holiday or waiting to go having already paid their deposits. To those people affected, such an event can clearly prove extremely traumatic. One minute they are enjoying their hard-earned, eagerly anticipated break in the Sun and the next, they are left wondering how they are going to get home and pay for accommodation beyond their scheduled stay. It is a particularly worrying time for those on limited budgets who do not have sufficient holiday money to last for longer than expected.

Provided they had the good sense to book their holiday with an ATOL licensed operator, these hapless tourists can luckily rely on the CAA to come to the rescue extremely quickly using funds collected from the subscriptions of all ATOL member firms.

The most recent tour company casualty was Holidays 4 U which specialised in packages to Turkey. Immediately following the firm’s collapse, the CAA established close contact with the Turkish Tourist Board and local hoteliers to ensure that all ATOL - protected Holidays 4 U customers in Turkey could remain in their hotels until their return flights could be arranged. The extra costs of these extended stays are refunded to the affected holidaymakers by the CAA on receipt of a claim form.

The next task was to arrange dozens of flights home for the 12,800 customers stranded in Turkey. While about 2/3rds of the holidaymakers returned on the originally intended flights funded again by the ATOL scheme, the remainder had to be fixed up with alternative transport home.
Meanwhile, all those customers who had yet to go on their holidays with the firm were due to get a full refund under the ATOL scheme so that no-one was out of pocket.

Dealing with eventualities like the failure of Holidays 4 U is all part of everyday life for the staff at the CAA.