A row has broken out between the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority and Kroll, administrators of bankrupt tour company XL Leisure Tours, over a rescue plan to use its 19 planes to return 85,000 stranded holidaymakers to Britain.

Kroll, the corporate restructuring specialist, was appointed on Friday when XL filed for bankruptcy. Both Kroll and CAA claim that using XL planes to return victims of the company’s collapse had been considered but each has blamed the other for resorting to other measures.