Over 4,000 British holidaymakers have been left stranded abroad following the collapse of Scotland’s largest holiday charter and budget airline, Flyglobespan.

A further 117,000 who have booked Christmas breaks with the company will also miss out on holidays, and 800 staff will be out of jobs.

Around 4,000 holidaymakers now abroad are believed to be stranded abroad. Another 117,000 who had booked flights will lose them. Of those, 27,000 who had booked package holidays should be refunded but another 90,000, who had booked flights only are expected to lose what they have paid.

Those who paid online using debit cards are most likely to lose their money. Only credit card payments or those who booked using an ATOL-bonded travel agent are likely to receive a refund.

The bulk of the airline’s flights operated from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen serving Mediterranean resorts, as well as a handful of mid and long-haul destinations including Florida and Egypt. The airline also flew from Cardiff, Belfast and Manchester.

Speculation rose earlier in the week that Flyglobespan was about to go into administration. However the airline denied the reports, saying it was about to secure a major funding package from Halcyon Investments Ltd, a Jersey-based corporate financing firm.

But these failed to materialise and the airline filed for administration last night.

The airline has been suffering from a slump in passenger numbers during the downturn, as well as higher fuel costs. It signalled its growing problems earlier this year by withdrawing flights from Durham Tees Valley.

Ryanair and easyJet budget airlines stepped in with offers last night to fly the airline’s passengers on routes which overlapped with their own.

Bruce Cartwright, a PricewaterhouseCoopers accountant appointed to administer the airline, said that all flight operations would cease.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) will be responsible for getting home about 1,100 of the stranded passengers who booked flights as part of a Globespan package holiday.