More than 21 million UK passengers enjoyed Atol-protected holidays in the year to March, more than two million up on the previous year.
The £51.7 million they paid in Atol Protection Contributions (APCs) on holidays boosted the surplus in the Air Travel Trust fund to almost £55 million – up from £18 million a year ago. The trust pays out to repatriate or refund consumers if an Atol-holding travel firm goes bust.
The figures were revealed in the Air Travel Trust (ATT) annual report published on Tuesday which highlighted a relatively low level of Atol failures during 2013-14.
Just 13 Atol-holders failed at an estimated cost of £3.8 million to the ATT fund, up from 11 failures in 2012-13 at a cost of £800,000.APC payments rose from £46.6 million paid by 19.2 million passengers in the previous year to £51.7 million from 21.5 million passengers in 2013-14. That left the ATT fund with a surplus of £54.7 million.
The fund paid out refunds to 10,373 passengers over the 12 months and repatriated 494.
The improvement in finances follows the introduction of a Flight-plus Atol in April 2012 to cover so-called ‘dynamic packages’ and came after a serious of expensive failures, most notably of XL Leisure Group in 2008 and Goldtrail Travel in 2010.
Goldtrail liquidator PwC won a recent High Court claim for compensation for some of the money paid out by the ATT.
Trust chairman Michael Medlicott said: “The last 12 months has continued to be challenging for travel operators. However, the number of Atol-holder failures has remained low, with the total cost easily managed from current reserves.“During this period, the CAA introduced new ways to help consumers continue their holiday if a travel operator collapses, which helped lower claim costs significantly in some cases. Consequently, the trust is no longer reliant on borrowing facilities.”
Medlicott suggested “the increasingly established Atol certificate” should “reinforce the message to consumers that they are financially protected and help grow confidence in Atol-protected holidays”.