The UK Civil Aviation Authority has now settled more than 95% of all the claims it has received to date. This equates to 320,000 claims settled at a value of over GBP310 million in ATOL payments. This is the largest amount ever paid out by the scheme since its creation in the 1970s.

In addition to the 320,000 claims already settled, there are approximately 10,000 claims remaining and these are being processed as a matter of urgency. In most cases, these claims have taken longer to process because the details entered online do not exactly match Thomas Cook's booking records, in some cases due to Thomas Cook's incomplete or inaccurate data, making it more difficult for the claims team to identify bookings as quickly as we would like. We have a dedicated team working through the remaining claims in order to support consumers and process ATOL payments as quickly as possible.

There are also thousands of forward bookings with Thomas Cook that we have not yet received claims for, and we encourage anyone who has not yet opened a claim to do so as soon as possible so that we can process all claims within the timescales available to us.

Commenting, Richard Moriarty, Chief Executive of the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said:

'While more than 95% of people who have made a claim have now received their ATOL payments, we are sorry that some are yet to receive payment. We are continuing to work through this enormous operation as quickly as we can as we understand that customers who have seen their future holidays cancelled will want to receive payment as soon as possible.

'We acknowledge that it has taken longer than we had hoped to make payments to the remaining consumers. We have a dedicated team working to process the most complex cases that need additional support and all consumers with outstanding claims should hear from us by the end of this week to receive an update on their claim and any next steps required. If we request further information, we would encourage consumers to respond as quickly as possible as we cannot process any payments until this information has been received.'

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