ATOL is the licensing scheme, and the Air Travel Trust is the fund that pays out when an ATOL holder fails. Its trustees are CAA Board members or officials, and the CAA administers the Trust as their agent and handles claims.

How it is funded

The Trust’s main income is the ATOL Protection Contribution, £2.50 for each passenger booked under an ATOL. In the year to 31 March 2026 it received £79.5 million in contributions. If its money ran short after a large failure, or several smaller ones, the trustees expect the government to provide extra support. They base this on past government support and earlier assurances from the Secretary of State for Transport.

How payments work

• Payments are made at the trustees’ discretion under a published payment policy, the latest dated 10 June 2026.

• Under that policy, the Trust may refuse to pay a customer who paid by credit card or with a finance agreement and ask them to claim from their card issuer or lender instead. The CAA says it does this only for bookings made directly with an ATOL holder, not through a travel agent.

• The Trust does not refund an agent’s identifiable mark-up or booking fee.

• Claims must reach the Trust within 12 months of the CAA publishing a notice that the ATOL holder has failed.

Worth knowing

Money that an agent for an ATOL holder takes from customers is held for the Trust’s Trustees. If the ATOL holder fails, the agent must keep holding the money for them and must not pay it to the failed company. Neither ATOL nor the Trust is travel insurance, and the Trust does not cover bookings that are not ATOL protected, such as accommodation-only bookings.