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The CAA have again clarified that any travel components (including a flight) sold ’sequentially’ will be classified as a package which should be covered by ATOL. Although there have been suggestions that ‘consecutively’ is quite a grey area there will no doubt be a test case to clarify this in the near future. This clarification is aimed at many operators/agents selling unprotected ‘dynamic packages’. The law surrounding this was less clear until this recent announcement.

All bookings from Holiday Direct’s own dynamic packaging have always been covered under Holiday Direct’s own ATOL number 6858.

Further ATOL news relates to the bonding levels required for ATOL holders, the bonding is set to remain for new entries to the ATOL scheme, and may even rise for some. The £1 levy will not replace the traditional bonding fees paid by ATOL holders, providing more security for the customer.

The start of the year has seen the completion of our front office sales system integration with the inclusion of Octopus Travel, Holiday Brokers and You Travel under one dynamic packaging search facility.

Our members are now able to search all these suppliers, together with scheduled flight operators from SABS, SABRE and low cost airlines (Easyjet, Ryanair, FlyBe….etc) , and make a reservation which feeds directly into our back office system.

Holiday Direct is proud to be one of the first with this new technology and our agents will see the benefit straight away: far less administration and a much quicker service to the customer.

Holiday Direct agents have performed extremely well this ski season - with French destinations still top of the list. Holiday Direct’s in house ski tour operator, along with our agent in Guernsey, has helped organise a group tour which will see over 400 guests in the resort of Les Deux Alpes this season.

This has been the first year for our agent running the trip (with help from the in house experts and ex ski rep) and no doubt it will bring the agency a huge number of happy returning customers throughout the season.

The more ski sales the Holiday Direct Group make as a whole, the better commission rates we will receive next season.