ATOL check: how to confirm a booking is protected, in six steps

Checking ATOL protection is not one search. It is a short sequence: is the seller an ATOL holder or selling for one; did a certificate arrive; whose name is on it; did you get an e-ticket instead; and, if something has gone wrong, is that holder still trading. Each step comes straight from the Civil Aviation Authority’s own guidance, quoted below. For business travel there is a seventh question — whether ATOL applies at all — and it usually does not.

Six checks, in order

The six checks in detail

1. Before you book: the register

The CAA’s ATOL holder search returns licence holders. Search the company’s registered legal name as well as its trading name; a brand and the licensed entity are not always the same.

Not finding a company does not by itself mean a booking is unprotected: “Not all travel companies are required to hold an ATOL. The travel provider may be acting as an agent on behalf, and with the authority of a disclosed ATOL holder, or acting as an airline ticket agent.” In that case the useful question is whose ATOL the booking will be made under — and the answer should match the certificate.

2. At payment: the certificate

The CAA: “If you book an ATOL protected flight, you will be sent an ATOL Certificate after making a payment. However, you will not receive a valid e-ticket in exchange for payment.” The certificate is the document that tells you the booking is protected, and it is issued once you have paid.

3. Read it: who is protecting your trip?

The CAA tells travellers to “check under the ‘Who is protecting your trip?’ section, this will show who the ATOL holder is.” That name is the one that matters — not the website you booked on, and not the brand on the confirmation email.

4. The e-ticket test for flights

That single sentence answers most “is my flight ATOL protected?” questions. A flight-only booking where the ticket arrives at once is outside the scheme; delay and cancellation rights for it come from UK261 instead.

5. If something goes wrong

First, is the holder still trading? “If the protector of your trip is still trading, you should contact that ATOL holder for further assistance.” If not: “The name of the ATOL holder will be placed on the Register of failed ATOL holders on the CAA website.” For travellers already abroad, the CAA lists what the scheme does: “Assisting you to stay in your holiday accommodation, if possible. Reimbursing you for any money you may have spent to replace ATOL protected parts of your trip, e.g. accommodation, car hire, transfers. Arranging flights home, depending on the circumstance.”

It is not insurance — “ATOL is not a form of Travel Insurance.” — and it does not cover an airline delay.

6. Claim in time

“We must receive your claim within 12 months from the date of the ATOL holder’s failure.”

Checking a travel supplier for a company

For a company the same checks apply, with two differences. The first is that a business supplier often books through other ATOL holders rather than holding a licence itself, and the CAA describes how that works: “ATOL holders can sell flights and packages through travel agents and therefore travel agents do not need to hold their own ATOL.” So the question to put to a supplier is not only “do you hold an ATOL?” but “for which bookings, and under whose licence, will we receive ATOL Certificates?” The answer should name legal entities that appear on the register.

The second difference is that a lot of company travel is not flight-inclusive packages at all. Hotels and rail on their own are outside ATOL, and packages without a flight are protected, if at all, under a different regime: the Package Travel Regulations 2018 require an organiser to provide security “The organiser of a package who is established in the United Kingdom must provide effective security to cover, in the event of the organiser's insolvency, …”. A supplier’s ATOL number tells you nothing about that, which is why the tender questions on the RFP template ask about both.

Finally, keep the evidence. A booking reference, the certificate for each protected booking, and a note of the ATOL holder’s legal name are what a claim would need if a holder failed during a trip. The 12-month window starts from the failure, not from the trip.

The seventh question: does ATOL apply to business travel at all?

The legal basis for ATOL is a prohibition on selling flight accommodation without a licence:

But regulation 10 exempts a person “a person who is making available flight accommodation under and in accordance with the terms of a general business travel agreement which includes all current terms that have been published by the CAA under paragraph (2)”. Where corporate travel is booked under such an agreement, a company’s travel supplier may legitimately have no ATOL for those bookings. What that means for a buyer is on ATOL, ABTA and IATA in business travel; the difference between ATOL and ABTA is on ATOL vs ABTA.

This page quotes the CAA and the ATOL Regulations 2012 as read on 2026-10-01; it is not legal advice.

Common questions