BRITISH holiday companies were last night trying to help thousands of UK tourists stranded in America by the trans-Atlantic flight ban.

Airlines are poised to resume flights after the US lifted its aviation ban.

The UK Government, too, announced its ban on low flying over central London would end at midnight on Saturday.

Both Newcastle and Teesside airports have drafted in extra security staff to deal with the increased checks.

John Waiting, business services manager at Teesside Airport, said heightened checks included a physical search just before people boarded the aircraft.

He said airlines such as British Midland, KLM UK, Eastern Airways and Ryanair had limited hand luggage to one per person while tour operators had banned hand luggage outright - although valuables, medication, and tickets were allowed.

A spokeswoman for Newcastle Airport said extra staff were patrolling the terminal buildings as well as carrying out additional searches before flights.

"We're advising passengers to arrive 30 minutes before their normal check-in time."

Dutch carrier KLM signalled the restart of Europe-US air links by arranging two America-bound flights leaving Amsterdam last night.

Virgin Atlantic said it was hoping to restart UK-US services as soon as possible.

The airline is offering full refunds or rebookings on all tickets to the US and Canada for passengers booked between September 11 to 17.

British Airways said it was not yet resuming trans-Atlantic flights as it was awaiting information from America's Federal Aviation Administration about new security procedures.

Most of the UK holidaymakers stranded in America were still being put up in their earlier accommodation at the expense of tour operators.

But many others, on fly-drive deals or travelling independently, were left to finance extra days themselves.

US Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta said that from 4pm yesterday, airports would reopen and flights resume on a case-by-case basis.

He said all involved would have to "implement our more-stringent levels of security" and he warned passengers to expect "some inconveniences".