The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is said to be providing travel companies renewing their Atol licences this spring with ‘special conditions’.
Atol licence renewals and the insolvency protection that goes with them depend on booking projections, which travel companies are finding difficult to make in the midst of the pandemic.
Atol renewals were originally due at the end of March but were pushed back to April 28 as the travel industry was hit by restrictions imposed by the coronavirus crisis.
It was only the second time the process has been delayed, the first of which being in the wake of Thomas Cook’s collapse last autumn.
The latest renewals, which will show how many passengers companies are licensed to carry, are expected to be announced in the coming days.
Speaking during an Elman Wall Covid-19 webinar, John de Vial, Abta’s director of financial protection and financial services, said the delayed process had gone “reasonably well”.
He added: “The CAA has been in a reasonably pragmatic place with licence holders. They are renewing the majority of licences but have been placing special conditions on holders so they have to go back to them later in the year.”