CAA reveals latest Atol figures after April renewals

*This story has been edited since the CAA updated its data at 02:01 on April 5. 

The Civil Aviation Authority has released the latest figures for Atol licence holders in the UK travel industry following the latest April renewals.

The ‘big three’ tour operators, Tui Group, Jet2holidays and Thomas Cook continue to dominate the list in terms of number of licenced seats.

Tui has grown its Atol licence 0.8% from 5,344,076 to 5,386,845, adding more than 40,000 more passengers to its annual total since April 2017.

Fast-growing Jet2holidays upped its Atol licence by nearly a third (29.2%) against last April, from 2,272,178 to 2,936,420.

Thomas Cook is listed as the third highest Atol holder on 2,389,227, 2.5% down on its 2,450,181 at this stage last year.

But that figure does not include its separate Atols, including Freedom Travel Group, which has an additional licence for 58,645.

Online travel agent Expedia, on 1,416,227, reduced its numbers by 0.4% while rival UK OTA, On the Beach, added more than 200,000 seats to its licence, taking it from 1,100,951 to 1,302,261.

British Airways Holidays saw its numbers drop nearly 12% from 893,000 to 786,000, while Love Holidays parent We Love Holidays jumped from 9th in the list last year to 6th this year, more than doubling its numbers from 400,093 to 804,618.

Travel Republic, on 610,269, dropped its numbers slightly by 1.6% from 620,012 while lastminute.com parent Bravo Next moved into the top ten with a 13.3% rise to 384,737 from 339,519.

Virgin Holidays also moved into the top ten, ahead of Southall Travel, its numbers rising from 337,623 to 388,249.

Meanwhile, 73 firms no longer have an Atol licence because they either did not apply to renew, chose not to renew, or applied for their licences to be revoked.

The CAA is still to decide the fate of another 71 businesses which have applied to renew their licences but failed to complete the process by the April 1 deadline.