PASSENGERS due to fly from Spain to the region on Friday night were angered to find their flight had been cancelled.

Instead of their expected flight from Alicante to Tees-side Airport, some people were flown to Manchester and then taken by bus to Teesside Airport.

The rest had to wait 24 hours for the next flight to Manchester - or for the next flight to Teesside Airport, on Wednesday.

One passenger, Shelley Hocking, 25, from Darlington, arrived home at 6am on Saturday and was forced to miss a days work while she recovered from the journey.

She and some friends had spent a week in Spain holidaying at a villa near Alicante.

Her father, Fred Parkinson, said: "There were no BMIbaby staff at Alicante to apologise to her or explain what had happened, someone else just told passengers the flight was cancelled.

"They do not have the passengers' interests at heart at all, as long as they get you back to England they've fulfilled their end of the deal.

"There was a woman with four kids who was having to wait for 24 hours for the next flight to Manchester, and they weren't even offering to put them up anywhere."

No one from BMIbaby was available for comment yesterday.