Scotland’s first minister has called for a full investigation by the U.K. government into the collapse of the countries largest airline last week. Alex Salmond said that it was a matter of urgency that the government finds out exactly why Scotland’s Globespan Travel Group is now in the hands of administrators, 550 employees are now out of work and thousands of people are stranded at a number of holiday destinations.

Salmond’s demands come after it was revealed that the company needed around £5 million to cover its cashflow problems but that E-Clear, Globespan’s credit card clearing house owed the company around £34 million. It is understood that the Cyprus based operation had extended the time it took to transfer funds from Globespan customers to the company’s accounts in order to earn more interest. Allegedly the time it took money to be transferred had gone up from an agreed five days to around 80.

John Swinney, the secretary for finance has also backed calls for a full investigation into E-Clears role in the collapse of Globespan. He said that if the money had been in the company’s account as it should have been then customers would still be enjoying their holidays and staff would not be faced with the prospect of Christmas with no job to return to afterwards. Swinney has also said that he has asked transport secretary, Lord Adonis to look into expanding ATOL protection to travellers, even if their flights are not booked as part of a package deal.