Travel company failures at lowest level since 2003
The number of travel company failures has dropped to the lowest level since 2003.
Between April 2015 and March 2016, 10 ATOL holders ceased trading, the largest being Exclusive Escapes.
This compares to 15 failures in the previous financial year.
"When compared with the market’s historic performance, this represents a very low level of travel company failure," said the Civil Aviation Authority today.
"In the last 12 months the travel industry has continued to face challenges arising from geopolitical incidents, which have impacted a number of regions and, naturally, this continues to present concerns for the travelling public," added Michael Medlicott, chair of the Air Travel Trust.
"However, in spite of this, UK consumer confidence in the travel industry remains strong, which is reflected by the increase in ATOL protected bookings, now more than 25 million, and the low number of ATOL holder failures which, at 10, is the lowest since 2003."
During the 2015/16 financial year, the Air Travel Trust funds were used to help fly home 339 ATOL protected passengers who were abroad when their travel company collapsed.
They also ensured 4,391 holidaymakers who were yet to travel got a full refund.
The ATOL scheme has helped refund and repatriate a total of more than 4,700 holidaymakers at a cost of £4.8m.
At the end of financial year 2015/16 the fund had a surplus of £139 million, up from £94 million the previous year, and it is the fourth consecutive year the fund has shown a surplus.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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