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Atol-accredited bodies get new CAA deadline for trust accounts

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has extended its deadline for Atol-accredited bodies to set up trust accounts to May 1.

The CAA had previously asked the eight accredited bodies to have trust arrangements in place by the start of April.

The Atol-accreditation dates from 2012 and was introduced as part of the reform which also brought in Flight-Plus Atols. It allows agents to sell Atol‑protected holidays under the licence of their accreedited body.

Travel Counsellors, Hays Travel, Barrhead Travel, Broadway Travel, Midcounties Co-operative, Advantage Travel Partnership, Global Travel Group and Freedom Travel Group (part of Thomas Cook through its joint venture with The Co-operative Travel) are all Atol‑accredited.

The CAA insisted it had no concerns about companies hitting the new deadline.

Travel Counsellors’ trust model means it already complies with CAA requirements. Bill Munro, Barrhead Travel chairman, said the company had everything in place to move to a trust.

Andy Stark, Global Travel Group managing director, said: “As far as we are concerned we are on track.”

Advantage managing director Julia Lo Bue-Said said: “We’ve always operated a trust, but we’ve been ensuring we’re fully compliant with CAA requirements.

“We’ve appointed Travlaw as independent trustees of the Advantage Managed Services trust accounts.”

However, Alan Bowen, legal adviser at the Association of Atol Companies, suggested companies lacking supplier failure insurance to go alongside the trust arrangements may find it more difficult to obtain cover following the failure of On Holiday Group (OHG).

Bowen said the failure underlined the importance of agents insuring against liability in the event of a supplier ceasing trading. He said: “At the AAC we always tell members to ensure they have supplier failure insurance. If a company didn’t have insurance before OHG went bust, it will be more difficult now.”

He added: “The OHG failure couldn’t have come at a worse time.”

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