Airline ticket agents are not required to hold ATOLs…..

 That’s the main benefit for a travel company looking to avoid the pitfalls associated with being an ATOL holder.

Check out our list of criteria to see if you fit within the definition of an airline ticket agent:

• You have been appointed by an airline as that airline’s agent to sell seats on its behalf. In other words: you have entered into a written agreement entitling you to supply confirmed tickets for travel on the airline’s services which will enable the ticket holders to be carried in those services without the ticket holders being required to make any further payment*
• You act in full accordance with the written agreement
• You are dealing directly with the consumer, not with another agent or travel business
• You issue the confirmed ticket directly to the consumer in immediate exchange for the first payment accepted for the tickets either from the consumer or from another person (not another agent or travel business) paying on the consumer’s behalf
• You have not accepted a booking from the consumer for either overseas accommodation or overseas car hire in combination with the flight ticket booking (a ‘Flight-Plus’)
• You are not providing the ticket as part of a package  *International Air Transport Association (IATA) accredited agents are exempted from the written agreement condition provided that they have the airline’s ticketing authority and act in accordance with IATA rules.

If you think you fit this description, and are not making any other type of flight seat sales, then you are probably falling within the CAA’s airline ticket agent exemption form holding an ATOL.