Following the collapse of travel company Thomas Cook Group Plc, the U.K. government plans to change the law to allow failed airlines to keep flying in order to rescue stranded passengers.

The tour operator's bankruptcy last month forced the Civil Aviation Authority to deploy more than 150 planes to bring home 140,000 people, an airlift that cost about twice the 50 million pounds (US$63 million) spent in a similar rescue in 2017 after the demise of Monarch Airlines Ltd.

"Being able to make use of existing assets and staff in order to get people home will help to cut the costs of these repatriation efforts when they occur, make repatriation easier to deliver and also reduce the disruption felt by passengers," the government said in a statement Friday.

Under the plan, the regulator would be able to use an airline's planes and crew to repatriate passengers.