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Atol renewals pushed back in wake of Thomas Cook collapse

Atol renewals will be issued a month later than planned in the wake of the Thomas Cook collapse.

The CAA made the “unprecedented” move to give itself and the industry additional time to cope with the fallout.

The renewal process was due to expire on September 30 but companies that have not yet had licences renewed will be given until October 25 to gain approval under regulation 38.

However, firms must still make their application for a licence by September 30.

Head of licensing operations for Atol, Michael Budge, said: “Given the exceptional circumstances and redistribution of our internal resources at the CAA to support the repatriation effort [following the failure of Thomas Cook], we have taken the exceptional decision that all licences that have yet to be granted will now have the licence period extended until October 25, 2019 to be approved.”


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He said the extra time would “enable industry to have additional time to support customers in a difficult period and give them the space and time to get things together to meet the terms of their renewals”.

Budge said it would also give the CAA the time to “appropriately assess applications where we need to complete assessments”.

He explained that the extension applied only to those companies which had applied but licences not yet been approved. Any company which has already had approval would not be impacted.

“Extending the deadline is possible within our regulations but it is unprecedented and reflects the exceptional circumstances that we find ourselves in,” added Budge.

“We would like to thank the industry for working with us and ask them to bear with us.”

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