A TEESDALE couple have spoken of how they managed to avoid being stranded on holiday in the wake of the collapse of travel company XL.

John and Sue Peat from Barnard Castle were on holiday in Turkey with four other friends but had to pay £300 each on Saturday to catch another flight back to Newcastle.

They had initially paid £270 each for the four-and-a-half hour XL return flights from Newcastle Airport to Dalaman, in south-west Turkey.

The group flew out on September 6 and were staying on a friend's yacht last week.

"We got a phone call from a friend on Saturday morning to tell us that XL had gone bust so we decided to go to the airport in Dalaman early," said Mr Peat, who owns a farm in Barnard Castle.

"We had to get back because some of us needed to be at work on Monday."

The group arrived at the airport but couldn't find anyone to help them so were forced to try to get help from companies back in England.

"We were ringing different numbers but were being put on hold for 20 minutes and then being cut off," said Mrs Peat.

The group decided to try to buy new tickets on a Turkish flight heading to Newcastle later on Saturday afternoon, but the vendor would only accept cash and wouldn't give them a receipt in return.

"In normal circumstances, we wouldn't ever buy from people like that, but he was sitting at a check-in desk and he seemed official," said Mrs Peat.

"It was the last flight back to Newcastle and we would have had to pay for overnight accommodation and food if we didn't catch it.

"People had bought tickets on the flight until it was full up, but there were plenty of people who were stranded.

"We spoke to one couple who had taken cash out on holiday with them.

"They didn't have a credit card and had spent all of their cash so they were stuck."

The group haven't been able to contact their travel agents but have been told they have a year to claim back £135 per person - half of what they paid initially to XL.

"We won't get the £300 we paid to the Turkish airline back because we don't have any receipts but at least we're home.

We might have still been stuck there now otherwise," said Mr Peat.