The past year or so has seen numerous travel firms and airlines go bust. Scottish airline Flyglobespan was the latest travel company to go to the wall, following others including Albury Travel, XL Airlines, Freedom Direct Holidays and Cambuslang Travel.

Travellers with these firms found themselves stranded abroad or unable to set off on a holiday they had booked and paid for.

With the recession far from over, and in the midst of holiday booking season, it's worth asking how you can protect yourself if more travel firms go into administration.

Many travellers may assume this kind of occurrence is covered by their travel insurance. However, these people will be surprised when making a claim to find the financial collapse of an airline is not covered by most mainstream travel insurance providers.

Steve Williams, head of travel insurance at Confused.com, says: "Comprehensive travel insurance is crucial for holidays once they have been booked. There is compensation available for those affected who bought tickets - or even part of a ticket - on a credit card that is not covered by travel insurance."

Section 75 of the Credit Card Act will reimburse passengers the cost of tickets if purchased on a credit card. Airline tickets costing £100 to £30,000 are covered via this act. Affected consumers should contact their credit card provider in order to progress financial compensation.

Some travel insurance policies include something called "scheduled airline failure" which covers policyholders if they have a flight booked with an airline that then goes bust.

Direct Line, for example, includes airline failure cover on its travel insurance policies. Direct Line's travel insurance policies protect customers from financial loss should their airline go bust. It also includes cover for the failure of hotels, villa rental companies, car hire companies, ferry companies, theme parks, excursion providers and many more.

Another way to protect yourself is to book your holiday or flights through a travel agent who is ATOL bonded. That way if your airline fails the travel agents will arrange to get you home, or refund the cost of your tickets.