A new survey conducted by Ipsos Mori revealed that only a small volume of air passengers think of airline insolvency when booking a ticket. Only five of the 2,072 people polled said that airline insolvency was an issue when booking, despite over 65 airlines collapsing since the start of the recession and huge losses continuing in the airline sector in 2010.

A possible explanation for this reassurance can be attributed to the ever increasing protection provided by travel insurance products. The survey revealed a huge 66% of passengers were aware if their travel insurance policy included financial protection, clearly identifying this cover as being an important factor when selecting insurance requirements.

The survey, carried out in March and commissioned by the Air Transport Users Council (AUC),  asked about passengers experience of booking tickets on-line which is an area generally falling outside of the Government’s Air Travel Operators’ Licence (ATOL) protection.

Tellingly, only 8% of the people surveyed said that they would definitely not pay for protection against airline failure, again demonstrating the huge desire for protection.

‘The advice is simple, if your trip is not ATOL protected then check your travel insurance policy’, explained Michael Ward of International Passengers Protection Limited, the airline failure insurance specialists.