In the UK, anyone who sells flights needs an ATOL unless they operate the aircraft or are exempt. A flight-only sale is typically ATOL protected when the customer pays a travel business that does not immediately give them a confirmed airline ticket, for example seats bought from a consolidator or tickets issued close to departure.

Sales that are not ATOL protected

Some flight-only sales are not ATOL protected. The airline itself needs no ATOL to sell seats on its own flights, and several exemptions let other businesses sell a flight on its own without ATOL protection, mostly where a confirmed ticket reaches the customer as soon as they pay:

• An airline ticket agent, appointed by the airline under a written agency agreement, selling only to the traveller, supplying a confirmed ticket immediately on payment and telling the customer at the same time that it is acting as that airline’s agent and the flight is not ATOL protected.

• An IATA Accredited Agent with ticketing authority from the airline, issuing a confirmed ticket immediately and putting the CAA’s prescribed statement on every invoice and receipt that the flight is not ATOL protected.

• A business that pays the airline in full at the time of purchase, with the airline’s confirmed ticket going straight to the customer and every invoice and receipt stating that the sale is not protected under the ATOL scheme. This exemption does not apply if the airline reserves the right to refuse to carry passengers who did not book with it directly.

Worth knowing

• None of these exemptions applies once the flight is part of a package: add a hotel to the same booking and you need ATOL cover. An airline packaging its own flights is the exception. It needs no ATOL, but it must protect the package in another way under the Package Travel Regulations.

• A business must not issue an ATOL Certificate for a sale that does not need one, so ATOL protection cannot be added to an exempt ticket.

• Taking a customer’s money while holding an unticketed booking falls outside the exemptions that depend on immediate ticketing. See ticketing time limit.

• A Flight-Only ATOL Certificate must list every passenger, including infants.