carbis22, XL did have ATOL cover. An ATOL is there to cover package holiday business not flight only business. It's one of the things that ABTA has been trying to correct with the pillocks that the UK people elected into government for the past few years but there aren't any votes in getting airline pax to pay an additional £1 per flight to cover airline failure. There are votes, however, when you make people think that they are contributing to "green" issues by charging an additional £5 in APD.
Good old Gordon