A CONFUSED holiday company in the South of England is insisting that Newcastle is in Scotland.

Bemused Jamie O'Neill e-mailed lowcostholidays.com - based at Gatwick Airport in West Sussex - to point out their geographical error.

The 24-year-old, of Cumbernauld, near Glasgow, had been searching for holiday deals on the company's website for airports north of the border - but the results kept including Newcastle.

"I only emailed with the subject heading 'Newcastle isn't in Scotland', didn't expect a reply."

But he was left astounded when Rajesh Bangera from the firm's customer services department did reply and insisted: "Newcastle is indeed located in Scotland. It is a city, not a capital.

"Please feel free to call us for further assistance."

Jamie took to twitter to highlight the howler: "lowcostholidays kept telling me Newcastle Airport was in Scotland so I emailed them to let them know. They disagreed!

"I was looking for a cheap holiday and all my Scottish airport searches were coming up with Newcastle so I emailed so they'd change make it easier for the rest of the people doing the same."

Newcastle Airport then tweeted: "Last time we checked Scotland was about 40 miles away. We'll look into it and get back to you."

Then minutes later added: "We checked. We're definitely not in Scotland!"

The website of lowcostholidays.com says it offers an "unbeatable service" backed by a "team of travel experts and our unique technology".