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UK Civil Aviation Regulations

These are published by the CAA on our UK Regulations pages. EU Regulations and EASA Access Guides published by EASA no longer apply in the UK. Our website and publications are being reviewed to update all references. Any references to EU law and EASA Access guides should be disregarded and where applicable the equivalent UK versions referred to instead.



Airline Ticket Agents are not required to hold ATOLs.
A person or business is acting as an Airline Ticket Agent providing that they are meeting all of the following conditions:

  • They have been appointed by an airline as that airline’s agent to sell seats on that airline’s services
  • They have entered into a written agreement entitling them 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*
  • They act in full accordance with the written agreement
  • They are dealing directly with the consumer, not with another agent or travel business
  • They 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
  • They 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.