The Civil Aviation Authority will ask the UK Supreme Court to hear an appeal against the High Court’s decision to throw out the Travel Republic case.

It said it would take the case to the highest court in the country because the High Court today indicated that the case was of public importance even though it threw out the CAA’s appeal.

Lord Justice Elias and Mr Justice Keith today gave the CAA a certificate that allows the authority to ask the Supreme Court to hear the case. It does not guarantee the case will be heard.

It said in a statement: “The CAA is disappointed that the courts did not agree that these transactions were packages.  

“The public is faced with choosing between similar looking holiday arrangements that receive very different protection when things go wrong. 

“It is for this reason the CAA has decided to refer the decision to the Supreme Court, which, if it accepts the case, will decide, whether or not the passengers in this case were booking holiday packages, and thus would have received Atol protection for their whole holiday.”  

Richard Jackson, director of consumer protection at the CAA, said: “It was demonstrated by the XL Group collapse in 2008, and more recently in the disruption caused by volcanic ash, that there are substantial advantages to booking Atol protected packages.

“In both examples many customers who had not bought an Atol protected package found that they lost money on elements of their holiday cruise, villa or hotel when they could not reach their destination by air. Customers who booked an Atol package did not lose out.”