THOUSANDS of tourists may yet fall victim to further strike action by Spanish workers which brought chaos to Britain's airports at the weekend.

Schedules returned to normal yesterday at Teesside and Newcastle airports after the 72-hour strike ended, and hundreds of North-East holiday makers flew out to start their holidays in Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza.

But other airports were battling to clear the backlog of passengers, and there was confusion about what happens next over the coach drivers' dispute on the Balearic Islands.

The drivers are responsible for ferrying tourists to and from the airports and the resorts.

A settlement was rumoured to have been reached on Sunday night.

But the coach drivers rejected the deal, and union leaders now warn the islands could face further disruption.

The next planned stoppage is July 15 - a date when thousands more British tourists will be flying out to start their holidays.

One North-East family told yesterday how their two-week holiday to Menorca was cancelled and they had to settle for a week in Cyprus.

Anthony and Gillian Kemp, both 33, of Chilton, County Durham, booked their first holiday abroad with children Samantha, seven, Joanne, five and Christopher, four. The flight was due to leave Teesside Airport at 1.30pm on Friday.

Mrs Kemp said: "This is our first time abroad, and now we have to go somewhere else for one week. The children are devastated."

The family spent the night in a hotel before returning to the airport at 9am Saturday.

At 11am their holiday was cancelled. "The worst thing was that people who had come by coach to the airport from Humberside got a flight but we were told there were not enough seats," said Mrs Kemp.

The family contacted tour operator, First Choice, and through the helpline they were offered an alternative holiday. They went back to Hays Travel in Newton Aycliffe to discover their alternative was a week in Cyprus leaving from Manchester tomorrow.

Mrs Kemp and her husband, who works at Schott Glass, Newton Aycliffe, said: "It is just not what we had planned.

"We booked the holiday last September, had chosen Menorca because we had been told it was a good place for the children."

Meanwhile, airport officials are waiting for news of the Spanish dispute.

Teesside Airport spokes-man John Waiting said: "Everything is back to normal, certainly until a final decision is made by the Spanish authorities."