Comment: Atols show shifting fortunes

For the trade it allows you to see, at a glance, how the industry that supplies you with product or competes with you head-on has changed and continues to change.

What’s clear this year is that we now have a big three in travel after Jet2holidays’ remarkable expansion sees it move to within a hair’s breadth of Thomas Cook.

After consolidation of the big four to the big two in 2007 and the failure of XL Leisure Group in 2008, the industry needed more competition and it has come from the north.

As Leeds-based Jet2 boss Steve Heapy told me in September, the opportunity the company saw at Stansted was in the “underserved” package holiday market from people demanding an Atol.

With Jet2 not having its own store network – unlike Tui and Cook – that’s got to be good news for agents.

The rebounding package market and importance of Atol were underlined at last week’s Hays Travel Independence Group conference.

So it was timely that the Department for Transport confirmed Atol’s immediate future in its latest reform consultation on Friday.

Could Atol become a kite mark for consumer protection in travel within Europe?

After June’s Brexit vote, it would be deeply ironic if the UK’s approach to travel regulation were established as a gold standard in Europe just as we go it alone. Until then, the industry faces more change as Atol reforms yet again.

Some things never change.