Thousands of Northern Ireland customers of low-budget airline Zoom are trying to recover their money after its collapse.

Angry travellers at Belfast International Airport were left shocked and stranded as the firm announced it had gone bust as a result of the economic downturn and high oil prices.

Flight Z4467 was to fly from Cardiff to Belfast International Airport and then travel to Vancouver.

However, it was grounded when the airline said it was suspending all operations, leaving hundreds of passengers high and dry.

A lifeline has been extended to stranded Zoom passengers by tour operators Canadian Affair, which is laying on additional flights to and from Canada and British Airways, which offered a reduced one-way fare.

The company has already rebooked more than 3,000 passengers and will run an additional flight next Monday (September 1) from Toronto to London and from London to Toronto on Tuesday (September 2). More flights are expected to be announced later today.

Zoom, which operated from five UK airports on both sides of the Atlantic — including Belfast — has left passengers facing large bills for alternative flights to return home.

The firm’s cash crisis became apparent on Wednesday following the grounding of a Zoom flight from Paris at Calgary airport in Canada.

Zoom, which was based at Gatwick, employed 450 staff in Canada and 260 in the UK but none in Northern Ireland.

It operated flights from Gatwick, Glasgow, Manchester, Cardiff and Belfast, as well as Paris and Rome, to eight destinations in Canada, New York, San Diego, Fort Lauderdale and Bermuda.

Student Judith Craig has been left stranded in Boston.

She has been working in summer camps in America for the past two months and had planned to come home to Northern Ireland for a week before returning to university in Scotland.

Her dad Joe said: “If she doesn’t get home on time I’m not sure what’s going to happen now. We were looking forward to her coming home for one week before she goes to university in Dundee.”

Danielle Conlon from Belfast was due to fly home from Calgary in Canada on Saturday but is now stranded.

“I tried to phone Calgary airport today but all the phone lines are busy, I tried to ring Zoom's phonelines but their offices are closed. It's a long weekend here in Calgary for Labour day so all the hotels are getting booked out as well.”

One stunned passenger today told how she had been looking forward to flying to Vancouver to visit a brother she hasn’t seen for 38 years. Another Northern Ireland woman was on the point of boarding her flight when the disaster struck.

“They obviously knew what was happening and they put us through all the security. I went to boarding at 4.05pm and the girl said there is a slight delay with Zoom because of incoming flights this morning.”

Passengers were told the flight would leave at 6.30am but it was after that that they learned the flight had been cancelled.

Zoom have said BA and Virgin Atlantic were offering “special” fares for passengers whose flights had been cancelled. Its closure has sparked concern for the future of other airlines.

Aviation expert Jim Ferguson said it is likely more airlines could fold within months due to the economic downturn. “I think it will be a very, very long hard winter for airline industry and I think come the spring, in Europe of sure a number of airlines won’t be with us.”

Mr Ferguson said that Americans are laying off air crews.

“If they sneeze (American airlines) a lot of people in Europe say that the British are getting flu, which is unhelpful,” he said.

Zoom customers who have made and paid for reservations were being advised to contact their credit or debit card company to apply for a refund.

However, Doreen McKenzie, the local spokeswoman for the Association of British Travel Agents, said the process of getting your money back is “a complex matter”.

Passengers whose travel arrangements have been made as part of a holiday package originating in the UK and booked through a holiday company, may be able to make a claim under the CAA’s Air Travel Organiser’s Licence scheme and are being advised to consult the CAA ATOL website at www.atol.org.uk..

Have you been affected? Contact rhenry@belfasttelegraph.co.uk or contact the newsdesk on 028 9026 4420.

How to get your money back

• Not all passengers who have paid for future Zoom flights will get their money back — for example, those who paid cash for a flight-only deal with Zoom.

• If you’ve booked as part of a package holiday, you could be covered by the ATOL system — companies in this scheme lodge a financial guarantee bond with the Civil Aviation Authority which can be used to bring stranded passengers home and compensate those with future bookings.

• To find out about making a claim, visit the Civil Aviation Authority's ATOL site at www.atol.org.uk.

• If you paid with a credit card and your transaction is more than £100, your money is protected under the Consumer Credit Act. Your money may be protected even if the cost of your air travel was less than £100 and you paid by credit card, but you should claim within a reasonable time. Contact your credit card company. The protection doesn’t apply to debit cards.