ATOL licence holders need an Accountant who is qualified as an ATOL Reporting Accountant, to submit ATOL Accountants’ Reports to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

CAA developed the ATOL Reporting Accountants’ scheme to help improve the standard of ATOL reporting and to provide assurance that any financial information submitted to them is accurate. They designed the scheme to ensure that accountants are sufficiently knowledgeable about the travel industry as well as the specific requirements of the ATOL scheme.

We are licensed by the Institute of Chartered Accountant’s in England and Wales’ (ICAEW) Licensed Practitioner scheme which is approved as a qualifying ARA scheme by CAA.

The complexity of the travel industry rule book shows no sign of easing and with the introduction of The Package Travel And Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018, industry-specific understanding is increasingly demanded by regulators.

The CAA is insisting that only accountants who meet the requirements of the licensed practitioner scheme are eligible to submit the Accountants’ Report to the CAA.

The ATOL Reporting Accountants’ (ARA) scheme has been developed to provide assurance that financial information that is submitted on behalf of ATOL holders is accurate and to reduce the risk of reporting false or inaccurate financial information. This is about working with professional bodies to improve the standard of ATOL reporting. CAA have worked with ICAEW and others to establish a set of key principles to underpin the new scheme and create a framework for sharing information.

ATOL rules are quite complex and they’re not static. One needs to have a good working knowledge of the sector and the ATOL regulatory environment if you are to be in a position to know what is and what is not ATOL-licensed.

In practice, companies in the travel space struggle to understand their reporting requirements and lean on their accountant. Merali’s can adapt existing systems and processes to keep pace with the need to manage risk.