Jet2holidays remains the largest Atol holder following the latest round of licence renewals confirmed by the Civil Aviation Authority.
A total of 1,630 businesses are currently licensed under the Atol scheme following the March renewal round.
Of the 668 licences that expired at the end of March, 615 have been renewed, with a further 20 still in the application process or yet to meet licence conditions. Thirty three did not apply.
This compares with 604 granted this time last year, with 16 that applied but did not get renewed and 41 that did not apply.
Jet2holidays (6.7 million), Tui (5.8 million), Loveholidays (4 million), Booking.com (2.3 million) and easyJet Holidays (2.2 million) remain the current top five licence holders followed by On the Beach, British Airways Holidays, BravoNext, Marella Cruises and Travel Republic.
The regulator issued a reminder to travel businesses that they should apply to renew their Atol “well in advance” of the deadline because of the time required to analyse and process applications, and for the applicant to put any required conditions in place.
Businesses that fail to allow “reasonable time” to apply by the deadline risk being unable to take Atol-protected bookings.
CAA head of Atol Michael Budge said: “Companies renewing their licence in March forecast that passenger demand will continue to grow over the next 12 months as the impact of the pandemic continues to recede.
“Holidays remain a high priority for consumers, yet households face continued pressure on their budgets. We will continue to pay close attention to operator’s booking profiles and in particular the bookings for the popular summer departure period.”
He added: “As package holidays continue to grow in popularity with UK consumers, it is important consumers do their research before booking, use our website to check their holiday company is an Atol licensed tour operator and book an ATOL protected package holiday.”
The figures reveal that OTA Loveholidays increased its 2024 licence by more than a million passengers versus 2023.
The OTA is licensed to carry 4,014,688 passengers from the UK this year, up 39% on 2023 (2,887,766) and 191% on 2019 (1,374,812).
Chief executive Donat Rétif said: “Two major events have reshaped our industry over the past few years. The pandemic prompted people to re-evaluate what they want from a holiday, while the cost-of-living crisis underlined the importance of getting value for money.
At the heart of our proposition is a commitment to offering an unrivalled choice of holidays at the best prices, and the demand we are seeing shows that this continues to resonate with consumers.
“Our vision remains to become Europe’s number one holiday provider, and we know that continued investment in our people, platform and the experience we offer our customers will be central to us achieving that aim.”