Travel’s largest Atol holders’ new authorisations were revealed on Thursday (3 October), with Jet2holidays remaining the largest Atol holder after increasing its licence from 6.7 million to just over seven million seats – an increase of about 5%.

Tui retains second spot in the list, maintaining its Atol at 5.8 million seats, while Loveholidays – which renews its Atol in the spring – remains third with a licence for four million seats.

EasyJet holidays, though, is the biggest mover, jumping ahead of Booking.com into fourth place in the last with a licence for just over three million seats, a year-on-year increase of 33%.

Those renewing in October will be licensed for the period from 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025. Spring renewing Atol holders will reveal their new Atol allocations in early April 2025 for the period from 1 April 2025 to 30 March 2026.

On the Beach climbs to fifth despite being another spring renewal after Booking.com almost halved (-47%) its Atol from nearly 2.4 million to just shy of 1.3 million.

British Airways Holidays, which has just named Tui UK and Ireland boss Andrew Flintham as its new managing director, remains seventh in the list with a new Atol for 1.2 million seats, up from 1.1 million.

Lastminute.com (BravoNext SA) is eighth in the list (754,465, +1.5%) and Tui’s cruise brand Marella Cruises ninth (409,852, +15%), with Expedia (339,644, +12%) creeping ahead of dnata OTA Travel Republic into 10th place.

Travel Republic actually falls nine places in the list to 19th after reducing its Atol from around 320,000 seats to just over 140,000, a 57% reduction.

Carnival plc has reduced its Atol slightly from just under 250,000 to 237,000 (-5%), while Thomas Cook – which was recently acquired by Poland’s eSky Group – has increased its from 172,000 to 215,000 (+25%).

In the agency sector, Travel Counsellors – a spring renewing Atol holder – remains 18th in the list with an Atol for 151,199. But jumping ahead into 17th is Hays Travel’s in-house tour operation, which now has an Atol for 160,000 seats (+24%).

Registered under Hays Tour Operating Ltd, Hays last year revealed it would relaunch its in-house tour operator in the new year as a standalone B2B brand called Vista and make cruise a priority.

The latest renewals see Jet2holidays extend its dominance in the mainstream Atol package market over Tui after hiking its Atol in February 2023 to become the biggest Atol holder before extending it again in October 2023.

With Tui keeping its Atol at 5.8 million seats, easyJet holidays has inched closer to Tui, although its Atol remains only around half the size.

However, with Booking.com significantly reducing the size of its Atol, easyJet holidays climbs to fourth in the list and brings travel closer to having a so-called "big three" comprising competitors solely from the operator sector.

Loveholidays will renew its Atol in spring 2025. It added more than a million seats in April this year, bringing its total Atol authorisation to nearly +200% versus where it stood pre-pandemic.