CAA ATOL Licences
 

ATOLs in the UK typically run from 1st October to 30 September - if a leisure based airline can't satisfy the CAA in late September, the company has to cease trading, and the CAA then ends up with having to organise repatriataion for the all the holidaymakers abroad

I'm curious as to why the annual cycle begins at 1st October and not 1st November. European beaches in October may not be as busy as August, but there's still plenty of Brits on holiday during October in southern Europe - particularly over half term - which adds up to a big bill if the CAA has to charter aircraft to bring them home.

Why not instead make the annual ATOL licencing cycle start on 1st November, when the summer holiday season really comes to a close ?

Don't forget there are two renewal dates, 30th September and 31st March. It could be that the main one started for the 31st March, which would make sense as it's almost the start of a financial year and the beginning of the summer season

After companies had delivered the holidays and recieved all payments, they then probably had the cash to be able to pay for the renewal in September/October. Everyone else would have likely followed suit.
Now as a result, people have naturally moved to September as the main date, possibly because people were booking holidays with a longer lead time, the CAA would have more funds earlier on to stand a better chance of paying off any collapses

Just my two pennies, but seems logical enough to make sense. More info on this Wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Tr...s%27_Licensing