Passengers left stranded by the collapse of the long-haul budget airline Zoom have described how they were forced to pay thousands of pounds for alternative flights.

Thousands of passengers were stranded in Britain and Canada by the collapse of the airline, which grounded all flights on Thursday night. At least another 40,000 customers with bookings were also affected. Not all of them will be able to claim compensation.

Zoom, which operated from five UK airports, blamed its financial difficulties on the economic downturn and the rise in oil prices. Its UK managing director, Jonathan Hinkles, said the firm's fuel bill had increased by £15m, a rise of about £80-£90 on the cost of a return ticket to Canada.

People were stranded at Cardiff, Glasgow and Belfast. Zoom also flew from Gatwick and Manchester to eight destinations in Canada and a number of locations in the US.

Zoom's cash crisis became apparent on Wednesday after a flight from Paris was grounded at Calgary airport in Canada. On Thursday, the Civil Aviation Authority instructed Glasgow airport to detain a flight bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, over the non-payment of charges.

Hinkles said the collapse was brought about by one of the leasing companies, which owned a Zoom aircraft, taking action to seize the plane. He told the BBC this "set a chain of events in motion from which it was impossible for us to recover".

"We have been working on a financing deal for the company for two months and we have been making very good progress with that," he said. "We fully expected we would be able to continue flying but the problems that we encountered during the day [on Thursday], however, with a number of aircraft being seized by airports authorities, such as the one in Glasgow, made it very difficult. Clearly you can't run an airline without aircraft."

Hinkles said 20,000 people in the UK had bookings with Zoom until the end of 2009, and a similar number in Canada. The CAA said the figure was 60,000 and the number of British passengers stranded overseas by Zoom's collapse was 4,500.

Passengers were told of the company's collapse as they waited into the evening. Aaron Steele, 30, from Ottawa, was returning from his honeymoon in Scotland. "We're travelling from Edinburgh to Ottawa via New York. It was around £1,000 for the flights plus we had to pay for a night in a hotel," he said. "We tried to get a flight until 11pm last night [Thursday] then realised we'd have to come back this morning [Friday]."

Xander Forsyth, from Edinburgh, was stuck at Halifax airport, Canada, with more than 200 Zoom passengers. Their flight to London had been delayed overnight. They boarded on Thursday, waiting several more hours before being told to get off.

Police were waiting as they filed into the lounge. No one was allowed to leave and tempers began to flare, with children crying and the heavy security presence causing growing unease.

Forsyth, a graphic designer, said he Googled the word Zoom on his iPhone and found out about the airline's crisis. "With a slight fear of being tackled by police, I hopped on the highest counter I could see and shouted out the news," he said.

Steve Ward, who had been visiting his mother in Halifax, booked business-class tickets back to London on Iceland Air. They initially wanted to charge extra for each of his three young children, he said, but ultimately let the group travel for C$7,000 (£3,650), half the usual one-way rate.