Agents must very careful which group Atol they choose to meet the requirements of the new Flight-Plus regulations due come in next year, members were told at the Elite Travel Group conference this weekend in Jersey.
Alan Bowen, legal advisor to the Association of Atol Companies, warned not all consortia could cope with the failure of a large member.
He said: “The Civil Aviation Authority has said that you don’t need to get a licence if you join an approved body. Advantage are going to apply and I’m sure others will.
“You need to make sure if you’re going to do that, you join an approved body that’s going to survive a large failure.
“If a big member goes bust and the consortium can’t afford to repatriate customers, then the whole thing can fall apart – then you’ve got no Atol at all through no fault of your own. So you’ve got to be very careful which approved body you go to.”
Elite members will be offered Atol protection on in-house product from December. The existing Elite Airfares and Elite Hotels systems will be combined into one, through which bookings will be Atol protected under JTA Travel’s licence.
Members also have access to Advantage’s Gateway booking system.