A young couple stranded in Egypt following the collapse of travel firm XL have finally returned home.

Richard and Debora Turner, of Cotswold Close, Minster Lovell, near Witney, suffered three days of delays to their homeward journey following the demise of the company.

Mrs Turner,25, said the stressful events had taken the shine off what was supposed to be a memorable trip to celebrate their first wedding anniversary.

She added: "Our anniversary was fun, it was just getting home that was the problem.

"When you normally come back from your holiday, you come back and talk about how nice it was. But we’ve come back talking about this instead."

The couple, who run a hair salon in Witney, paid £1,350 for their two-week all-inclusive break in Egypt and were due to arrive back in the UK on Friday last week.

But on their last morning in Sharm el Sheikh they awoke to find text messages from relatives and friends warning them XL had gone into administration.

Mr Turner, 24, said: "We tried to contact one rep, but the number we had didn't work so it wasn't until we saw another rep later that we got some information.

"They told us all the flights that day were fine and that we would be picked up and taken to the airport at the scheduled time."

However, despite spending more than seven hours at the airport, the pair were unable to secure another flight once their own was cancelled.

Mr Turner said: "No one seemed to have any idea what was going on. Everyone was saying different things."

The couple eventually secured a flight to Manchester through the Civil Aviation Authority — after a 16-hour wait at the airport on Sunday.

They touched down in the early hours of Monday morning, and then had to travel by coach to Luton where they were picked up by Mr Turner's father.

Luckily, the cost of two extra nights in Egypt was covered by the Air Travel Operators Licences protection scheme.

Mr Turner said: "It's completely changed our outlook on booking holidays. Before we were always looking for the cheapest deal, but this has shown that’s not always best.

"I would definitely advise people to look into the company they book with to make sure they’re stable.

“I know XL was pretty big, but it might have been worth spending that little bit extra. You get what you pay for."

A spokesman for the CAA said: "We would like to apologise to the Turners for the delay in getting them home. "Regrettably planes were very hard to get hold of at that time, which caused the delays."

The liquidation is being handled by administrators Kroll. No one from XL was available to comment.