The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has issued a consumer alert ahead of 3 January’s ‘Sunshine Saturday’ – traditionally the busiest day of the year for holiday bookings – predicting a 4 percent year-on-year jump in January sales. The regulator is urging British consumers and corporate travel buyers to double-check that packages are covered by the Air Travel Organiser’s Licence (ATOL) scheme before parting with deposits.
The reminder follows several high-profile collapses of online travel agencies in late 2025, which left thousands of customers scrambling for refunds. Under the ATOL regime, travellers who book flight-inclusive packages with accredited providers are protected against supplier failure – a provision particularly valuable for SME business-traveller programmes that lack the leverage of large TMC contracts.
The CAA says it will run targeted social-media campaigns throughout January and will dispatch inspection teams to major high-street agencies to check compliance with updated ATOL wording that took effect on 1 December 2025. Fines for mis-selling ATOL-covered trips can exceed £20,000.
![CAA warns travellers to verify ATOL protection as ‘Sunshine Saturday’ booking surge begins]()
For trip organisers who also need to verify entry requirements, VisaHQ’s online platform can rapidly confirm if employees require visas, eTAs or transit permits for their chosen destination and can even handle the application paperwork on their behalf. The service, available to UK users at https://www.visahq.com/united-kingdom/, dovetails neatly with ATOL-protected booking workflows, helping companies wrap visa compliance into the same duty-of-care framework as financial protection.
Travel managers should remind employees booking bleisure add-ons that separate, non-flight hotel reservations fall outside ATOL and may require additional insurance. Companies using self-booking tools can embed the ATOL logo API released last autumn to give real-time visibility of coverage.
While the CAA does not regulate dynamic-packaged corporate itineraries booked through GDS channels, experts expect the forthcoming UK Consumer Travel Reform Bill (second reading due March 2026) to extend ATOL-style safeguards to a wider range of arrangements – a development that could increase supplier costs by 0.5-1 percent but improve duty-of-care compliance.
The reminder follows several high-profile collapses of online travel agencies in late 2025, which left thousands of customers scrambling for refunds. Under the ATOL regime, travellers who book flight-inclusive packages with accredited providers are protected against supplier failure – a provision particularly valuable for SME business-traveller programmes that lack the leverage of large TMC contracts.
The CAA says it will run targeted social-media campaigns throughout January and will dispatch inspection teams to major high-street agencies to check compliance with updated ATOL wording that took effect on 1 December 2025. Fines for mis-selling ATOL-covered trips can exceed £20,000.
For trip organisers who also need to verify entry requirements, VisaHQ’s online platform can rapidly confirm if employees require visas, eTAs or transit permits for their chosen destination and can even handle the application paperwork on their behalf. The service, available to UK users at https://www.visahq.com/united-kingdom/, dovetails neatly with ATOL-protected booking workflows, helping companies wrap visa compliance into the same duty-of-care framework as financial protection.
Travel managers should remind employees booking bleisure add-ons that separate, non-flight hotel reservations fall outside ATOL and may require additional insurance. Companies using self-booking tools can embed the ATOL logo API released last autumn to give real-time visibility of coverage.
While the CAA does not regulate dynamic-packaged corporate itineraries booked through GDS channels, experts expect the forthcoming UK Consumer Travel Reform Bill (second reading due March 2026) to extend ATOL-style safeguards to a wider range of arrangements – a development that could increase supplier costs by 0.5-1 percent but improve duty-of-care compliance.
