Crew members who were left stranded when the airline when bust were also being flown back to the UK.

Efforts to get Flyglobepsan's staff and customers back home were going on as administrators for the Globespan Group continued investigations into why millions of pounds from credit card bookings failed to reach the company.

Failed airline Flyglobespan would have had a better chance of survival if it had been paid the tens of millions of pounds it was due, Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney has claimed.

Mr Swinney claimed the company had been "badly let down" as it had not received £34 million from a credit card handling company.

Administrator Bruce Cartwright revealed the collapsed travel firm had been due about £30 million from a third-party booking agent.

And Mr Swinney said: "Flyglobespan were owed £34 million by a credit card handling company.

"And £20 million of that money, beyond dispute, without a word of question, should have been in Flyglobespan's bank account and that would have assisted their liquidity problems."

He said there were "massive issues which must be examined" about the performance of the credit card handling company E-Clear.

Now a CAA spokesman said it was stepping in to ensure those people on a Flyglobespan package holiday were able to fly home.

"We are sorting things out. In some cases it may involve hiring an aircraft and operating a flight for Flyglobespan customers. In other cases we will be putting them on existing flights by other airlines.

"There have been flights coming back yesterday (Thursday) and there are more flights today (Friday) and over the coming days."

Most travellers who had bought a package holiday should be able to fly home as planned, he said.

The CAA spokesman said: "The vast majority of people will come back on the day they are supposed to come back."

But people who bought only their flight from Flyglobespan will need to make their own way home, although other travel firms have been putting on extra flights and reduced fares to help these passengers.

Administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers also said that some of Flyglobespan's stranded flight crew members were returning home today (Friday).

A crew which was stuck on Ascension Island was being flown home, as were employees stranded in the Middle East.

Thirty Flyglobespan workers were stranded in the holy city of Medina in Saudi Arabia. The airline had a contract to carry passengers between Delhi in India and Medina for Hajj (pilgrimage).

Flyglobespan captain Bob Lee said the workers had been confined to their hotel for four days because, as non-Muslims, they were not allowed to move around the city.

He said that crew members could not get flights out of Medina because of the huge demand.

Mr Lee said 1,000 Flyglobespan passengers from India were also trying to find alternative flights home, adding to the stranded workers' difficulties.

Katrina McBride, from Fife, said: "My daughter and a number of other crew who work for Flyglobespan are currently based in Saudi and India. Who's looking after them? Who will bring them home? When? And how soon?

"We are currently in limited communication with my daughter who is in a state of panic. She has already phoned, crying her eyes out worrying about what will happen. Who will pay her hotel bill, as she been working out there for almost six weeks?"