Triton Travel Group has recently revealed that during the aftermath of the collapse of XL Leisure Group, there has been an "unprededented" surge in the number of applications to join their Atol protection scheme. The firm stated that during last week alone, the company accepted not less than 300 calls and enrolled 60 additional members to the scheme.
It is said that the surge of this popularity is on account of the fact that people who make their bookings with firms protected by Atol are guaranteed compensation in the event of an airline or travel operator collapsing.
The collapse of XL in September left more than 80,000 British holidaymakers stranded in about 40 destinations across the world. In addition, not less than 200,000 forward bookings became void.
Immediately after the collapse of the airline, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) took steps to facilitate the return journeys of all affected passengers. However only those who booked with an Atol-protected operator were guaranteed free travel.
While commenting on the increased focus on the scheme among travel operators, Jason Edwards, the spokesman for Triton said, "The surge in interest is clearly down to the demise of XL.â
He too continued further, "Sadly at some point we knew it would take something like this for agents to realise the implications of leaving nothing to chance.â
