Atol reform in question as trade in dark over DfT’s intentions

Leading industry figures are divided on whether the Department for Transport (DfT) and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) will proceed with Atol reform more than four years after initiating the process.

Fresh delays are expected due to a new aviation minister taking over last month and news that CAA head of Atol Michael Budge will join Abta from December. Budge, who has led the Atol reform process since its launch in April 2021, will leave the CAA in mid-November.

He is not the only departure. Ben White, a well-known figure to the trade who oversaw Atol franchises and accredited bodies as well as trust and escrow arrangements, has also left after 27 years at the CAA and is now a director of the Air Travel Consultancy, part of the Assured Underwriting Group.

More: Analysis: Will Atol reform ever take off?

Alan Bowen, advisor to the Association of Atol Companies, said: “We were supposed to be getting something on Atol reform by the end of the year and now we’re running out of the year. Supposedly, the CAA was almost ready [to issue detailed reform proposals].”

He asked: “Do we need reform? The system is working well. The Air Travel Trust is in a really healthy situation, but we do need reform for Atol holders with their own airline.”

Travel Trade Consultancy director Martin Alcock said: “Atol reform has lost its importance. The Air Travel Trust is incredibly well-funded.”

The trust’s latest accounts reported the fund held £278 million at the end of June, above the previous record of £221 million in March 2019 ahead of the failure of Thomas Cook.

However, Alcock noted the significance of Budge’s move, adding: “He leaves behind a scheme in a state of flux. There is a vacuum there. Michael was the main driver of policy decisions. Who will come in? Will it be a policy person or someone more commercial?”

Asked whether he foresees the Atol reform process moving forward, Abta director of legal services Simon Bunce said: “I have no idea.” But he added: “It has been very quiet. I’m not expecting anything.”

Yet Chris Photi, partner and head of travel at White Hart Associates, described Atol reform as “still ongoing” and suggested: “It could be far more advanced than we think. Something could be about to come out.”

Indeed, a CAA source indicated to Travel Weekly last month that something could happen before the end of the year.

Another leading source noted Atol reform “is not in the CAA’s control, it’s in the DfT’s, and the DfT has kicked it into the long grass”.

A third source argued: “The CAA hopes something is going to happen, if not fairly soon then in our lifetimes. But it’s out of their hands and the DfT is hellbent on airport expansion. It has gone as far as it’s going at this stage.

“Until the CAA hears from the DfT, it doesn’t know whether reform has been dropped or will be left on the books. Only the DfT can answer that. Until then, it’s stuck in limbo.”