Stranded Britons face extra bill

Thousands of people around the world have been stranded by XL's collapse

A British couple staying on a Caribbean island have been given a hotel bill for almost £1,000 despite having already paid for their XL package holiday.

Martin Skillings, visiting St Lucia with his wife, said there were 34 other people there with similar bills, after the collapse of the travel operator.

XL had 21 planes grounded on Friday, leaving some 85,000 people abroad.

In its wake, 150 holidaymakers are also stranded in Turkey after K&S Travel ceased trading on Saturday night.

K&S, also known as Travel Turkey, charters planes from Onur Air and only flies to Turkey.

No refund

Mr Skillings, who lives in Norfolk, said there was little chance of the hotel getting any money.

"Most [of those billed] have done what I've done" and refused to pay, he went on.

CAA EMERGENCY HELPLINE Customers abroad: [phone] Customers in the UK with advance bookings: 0870 5900927 Holidaymakers stranded in Turkey

"That's where we stand at the minute. We're a little bit worried about whether there'll be any sort of retribution by the hotel."

A spokesman for the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) said poor weather conditions in the Caribbean had made it difficult to repatriate people based out there.

The organisation has arranged 94 flights to the UK to bring back more than 22,000 holidaymakers who had booked directly with XL and were therefore protected under the Air Travel Organisers' Licensing (Atol) scheme.

It said another 30,000 XL customers still abroad would be able to continue their holidays in the knowledge that their return flights would be covered by Atol.

The spokesman said a further 25,000 people would be looked after by the travel operators they had booked with.

Another 10,000 who had only booked their flights with XL and who were not covered by Atol could return on the CAA flights after paying a fee.

Meanwhile, it was disclosed that XL's former auditor warned of "financial irregularities" at the firm almost two years ago.

Accountancy firm KPMG claimed in a letter in October 2006 that it was blocked from investigating alleged misrepresentations by company directors that could have resulted in "material errors" in financial statements.

XL NUMBERS 85,000 people left abroad 50,000 booked on XL packages covered by Atol 25,000 booked with other tour operators 10,000 booked independently on XL flights Information provided by the CAA

It stated: "We are no longer able to conclude that the financial statements give a true and fair view of the profit of the company and its subsidiaries."

One estimate suggests a total of 450 flights will be needed to repatriate the rest of those passengers stranded abroad, an operation that could take several weeks.

The airlines operating the returning flights include BA, Monarch and Astraeus, which flew in from destinations including Tenerife, Orlando and Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt.

The decision to place XL Leisure Group into administration has left thousands of staff facing the axe.

XL chairman Phil Wyatt has said the company's entire 1,700 UK workforce could be at risk.

XL flies to 50 destinations and the CAA also said the firm had 200,000 advance bookings.

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