XL collapse sees 85,000 stranded

Britain’s third largest tour operator has called in the administrators, leaving around 85,000 tourists stranded abroad and a further 200,000 people likely to lose out on their advance holiday bookings. XL Leisure Group, which employs around 1,700 people worldwide, called in the administrators late last night after the failure of last minute talks with its investors, Barclays and the Icelandic investment group Straumur. All flights operated by the company were immediately cancelled.

The Civil Aviation Authority said it is trying to arrange flights to bring XL's customers back to the UK, while a spokesman for Air Travel Organiser's Licenses (ATOL), the system which protects consumers, urged holidaymakers to be patient. "Clearly if people do incur some additional costs, if they are delayed in their return, then they can put a claim in to the CAA under the ATOL scheme."

Meanwhile thousands of people were stranded after a fire broke out on a freight train in the Channel tunnel yesterday afternoon and raged for several hours, bringing services to a standstill. Eurostar has cancelled all today's services after the fire.