Budget airline Jet2.com has announced record summer profits on the same day as the collapse of Britain’s third largest tour operator.

And the Leeds-Bradford Airport-based company said it would help fly back the thousands of Britons stranded abroad after XL Leisure Group went into administration early yesterday.

More than 65,000 holidaymakers were left stranded and hundreds of people arrived at UK airports to find their flights cancelled after the company’s collapse.

But Philip Meeson, chief executive of Jet2.com, said the airline’s parent company was expecting half-year profits to be in excess of £30 million.

“We have been able to hedge our fuel, plan and ensure we offer Jet2.com’s low fares to our customers’ favourite European leisure destinations from our six regional UK bases,” Mr Meeson said.

“And we have recorded our best-ever load factors – in excess of 90 per cent.

“Our Atol-protected package holiday business, Jet2holidays.com, has also had another bumper year.”

The airline confirmed it was working with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to repatriate passengers stranded across the globe from the collapse of tour operator XL.

A spokesman said: “Jet2.com is working with the CAA which is aware of our availability and we are waiting for its confirmation for which passengers from which destinations we will be helping repatriate.

“The passengers are not to be charged for any of this.”

About 60 passengers bound for Manchester from Florida were flown by Jet2 to Leeds-Bradford Airport from Paris tonight following an XL overnight flight diversion.

Mr Meeson said the airline had avoided problems as it was not part of the transatlantic long haul market.

He said: “The airlines and tour operators that have had problems have been those with a bias towards transatlantic and long haul flights, as was the case with Zoom, Silverjet and XL, each of which operated frequent scheduled services to several destinations in North America, and this is an entirely different market to ours.”

Aviation and distribution group Dart Group PLC, Jet2.com’s parent company, said its full-year results were above market expectation.

A group spokesman said: “The group’s aviation business is set for a record summer.

“By focusing on its core European leisure routes, our scheduled airline, Jet2.com, is delivering improved yields coupled with load factors on these routes in excess of 90 per cent in the peak months.

“Trading performance has been supported by increased charter volumes, strong cost control and a conservative approach to fuel hedging.” The spokesman said its distribution business Fowler Welch-Coolchain, one of the UK’s largest chilled distribution companies, was continuing to perform well and in line with company expectations.

He said: “The business remains unaffected by fuel price movements, which are passed on to our customers.”