Holiday firm in administration

Tens of thousands of Britons are stranded abroad after the country's third largest package holiday group went into administration. The XL Leisure Group, which operates XL airlines, flies to 50 destinations, mainly in the Mediterranean. All its flights have now been cancelled and its aircraft grounded. The XL group, which is based in Crawley, West Sussex, runs an airline and owns several travel companies, including Travel City Direct, Medlife Hotels Limited, The Really Great Holiday Company, Freedom Flights and Kosmar Holidays. The group, which carried 2.3 million passengers last year, has 1,700 employees worldwide. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said 85,000 people could be stranded abroad and 200,000 have made advance bookings with the company.