Stranded passengers flying home

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said that as of midday some 22,090 customers of failed travel firm XL Leisure had returned to the UK on a total of 94 repatriation flights.

Meanwhile, package holidaymakers who had booked through K&S Travel were also being sought alternative flights after it emerged that the small operator had also collapsed. K&S Travel told regulators that it had ceased trading on Saturday night, leaving around 150 people marooned in the Turkish port town of Bodrum.

The north London-based firm primarily organises tours to Turkey through flights chartered from Onur Air.

All those affected will be covered by the Atol protection scheme, the CAA said, making it a simple matter of rechartering the flights for the same times. But it adds to the total number of people needing assistance from the regulator following the collapse of two British travel firms in a matter of days.

XL announced on Friday morning that it had been forced to call in administrators after failing to secure a rescue package. Company chiefs blamed high fuel prices and a worsening economy for its demise.

But it has since emerged that a former auditor resigned in 2006 warning of "financial irregularities" at the firm. Accountancy firm KPMG claimed that it had been blocked from investigating alleged misrepresentations by "certain directors" that could have led to "material errors" in company reports.

The demise of the UK's third largest tour operator has necessitated an airlift of stranded passengers described as "the most challenging ever undertaken" by XL chief executive Peter Wyatt.

In all some 85,000 British nationals will need alternative flights. The CAA is trying to mirror XL's original flight details, and has said that the vast majority of people will get home on the day they intend to.

Estimates of the cost of the airlift have been put in the region of at least £20 million.