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UK’s largest ever travel claims programme pays out £290 million and confirms over 90% of claims settled

  • Over 90% of all claims received by the UK Civil Aviation Authority have now been settled
  • ATOL has settled 300,000 claims, paying out £290 million
  • Work will continue to process claims during the Christmas and New Year period

The ATOL financial protection scheme, which is managed by the UK Civil Aviation Authority on behalf of the Air Travel Trust, has now settled over 90 per cent of the total claims received following the liquidation of Thomas Cook, totalling payments of £290 million. These payments cover 300,000 claims in total.

The Civil Aviation Authority will continue to process as many claims as possible in the coming days, including during the Christmas and New Year period. Our work includes claims we have received in recent days and weeks, as well as those that we have not yet been able to settle due to the complexity of the booking; along with cases where we are waiting to receive the correct information from Thomas Cook customers who need to validate their claim.

Any Thomas Cook consumers who are yet to submit their claim, or who have been asked to provide additional information, are encouraged to do so as soon as possible.

Commenting, Richard Moriarty, Chief Executive of the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said:

“This is the UK’s largest ever travel claims operation and we are pleased to have now settled more than 90 per cent of all the claims we have received since Thomas Cook ceased trading. This represents 300,000 claims and £290 million that has been paid out as a result. This is the highest ATOL pay-out since the scheme was established in the 1970s.

“This process has been made more challenging by the complexities of the booking data we have received from Thomas Cook, as well as the additional security checks we have had to include to reduce the risk of fraudulent claims. We thank consumers for bearing with us as we continue this programme.”

“We will remain focussed on supporting affected consumers and will continue to process claims throughout the festive period. We ask those who have not yet received payment to monitor their inboxes, including their spam folders, in case we need to request further information from them to progress their claim.”

The ATOL financial protection scheme is specifically designed to financially reimburse customers for their package holiday in the event of their tour operator ceasing to trade. A package holiday is made up of flights along with accommodation, car hire and/or hotel transfers. Any extras not included on a consumer’s ATOL certificate will not be covered. For flight-only bookings, customers should speak to their card supplier, while those that paid for optional extras should contact the original supplier or ABTA (the UK association of tour operators and travel agents) for further support.

Notes to editors:

These figures cover the period until the end of Sunday 22 December.

The figures above represent all claims received to date. ATOL has continued to receive claims most days since the claims process opened and will continue to process then as quickly as possible.

The claims process opened on 7 October 2019 and remains open until 22 September 2020.

Any Thomas Cook customer that has not yet submitted a claim is encouraged to do so as soon as possible.


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