The Civil Aviation Authority said on Monday that it is launching a new process for what is set to be the largest ever ATOL refund programme for Thomas Cook customers.
The Civil Aviation Authority added that it will begin focusing on refunding 360,000 ATOL protected holidays booked for the future with Thomas Cook. This is three times greater than any refund programme it has managed in the past.
Last week, the Civil Aviation Authority launched the largest peacetime repatriation, “Operation Matterhorn”, to bring over 150,000 people back to the UK following the collapse of Thomas Cook which left thousands of British holidaymakers stranded abroad.
Many took to Twitter to send their thoughts to Thomas Cook staff and customers.
In the first seven days, 106,000 people were flown back to the UK. Roughly 94% of people have flown back on the original day of their cancelled flight with Thomas Cook.
“We are now also turning our attention to the challenge of refunding 360,000 ATOL protected future Thomas Cook holidays that have been cancelled,” Richard Moriarty, Chief Executive at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said in a statement.
“This will be three times larger than any refund programme we have managed before, and we are implementing new systems to enable us to process these refunds as quickly as possible,” Richard Moriarty added.
“For around 100,000 bookings made by direct debit we hope to refund these within the next 14 days. Refunds of bookings made by other payment methods will take longer as we do not yet have all of the information we need from Thomas Cook.”
Consumers will be able to access an electronic refund form and the Civil Aviation Authority hopes to pay refunds within 60 days of receiving a valid refund form.
“We have returned over one hundred thousand people to the UK, but there are still over 43,000 people on holiday abroad due to return on or before 6 October. The scale and complexity of this operation will inevitably cause some inconvenience and disruption and I would like to thank holidaymakers for bearing with us,” the Chief Executive said.
