Newcastle Airport: Thirty flights cancelled due to air traffic glitch

Newcastle airport said it was "expecting operations to be closer to normal" by the end of Tuesday

Newcastle Airport bosses say a third of flights were cancelled on Bank Holiday Monday due to a UK air traffic control fault which caused travel chaos.

Out of 82 flights scheduled on Monday the airport said 30 were pulled.

Passengers across the UK have been warned they will face disruption for days due to the glitch, which has since been resolved.

Newcastle Airport said operations were "gradually returning to normal", with six flights cancelled on Tuesday.

Passengers on disrupted flights have been told to contact their airline for the latest flight status.

Graeme Mason, from the airport, said his teams were "plugged into all discussions" on Monday to make sure they had the latest information.

Passengers have complained about a lack of communication from airlines

"Over the course of the day things should settle down," he told BBC Radio Newcastle.

"Our aim is to have as few cancellations as possible and we have had a pretty good summer.

"Unfortunately we have had this challenging situation right at the end of the summer but as they always do, all of the teams at the airport responded very well indeed."

Teesside Airport confirmed it had four cancellations on Monday.

It added it was "running normally" on Tuesday, however passengers were urged to check their flights.

An investigation has begun into what caused the fault, which was reported just after midday on Monday.

National Air Traffic Services (Nats) announced at 15:15 BST it had identified and remedied the issue but it said it would "take some time for flights to return to normal".

It has seen tens of thousands of passengers travelling into and out of the UK left stranded or delayed.

'Shops out of food'

Katrina Harrison and her family - including one-year-old twin grandchildren - spent the night at Leeds Bradford Airport after their flight to Antalya, Turkey, was cancelled on Monday afternoon.

Ms Harrison, from Stockton-on-Tees, said all the shops inside had sold out of food and drink by night-time.

"There were no hotels to stay in, we couldn't get the car out of the car park," she said.

"We haven't slept, we tried to sleep on the floor but couldn't. Luckily the children could sleep in the pram.

"We're hoping to get on a flight tonight but if it doesn't happen we'll have to go."

Michelle Smith, from Darlington, had been sitting on a plane on the Greek island of Crete for a couple of hours when the captain told them to disembark.

She said she was hoping to travel back on Tuesday morning.

"I feel tired, exasperated, I just want to get home," she said.

"I just want to be communicated with, you can cope with most things as long as you know what is happening and you are not having to second guess."

Meanwhile, London North Eastern Railway announced it was offering free travel for people whose flights back to the UK were affected.

LNER said passengers having to land at a different airport, travel on a different date than originally planned, or needing to return home earlier could get free tickets on Tuesday, if they present a boarding pass or airline ticket.