THOUSANDS of North-East holidaymakers face an airport delays nightmare this weekend - victims of a coach drivers' strike on the sunshine Balearic Islands.

As three-hour taxi queues built up to ferry tourists out of the airports at Majorca, Minorca and Ibiza, the knock-on effect began to be felt back in the UK.

About 300,000 holidaymakers, including tens of thousands from the North-East, have had their holidays thrown into chaos because of the strike.

Passengers heading home faced delays of up to 12 hours last night, while hundreds of people hoping to head for the sun were left sitting in airport lounges.

Officials at Palma airport in Majorca warned that they could not rule out closing the airport if the action continued over the weekend.

Newcastle Airport yesterday had three scheduled flights to Ibiza, two to Mahon in Minorca and two to Palma, with about 200 people expected on each.

Today, another 12 flights are scheduled with two more tomorrow.

At Teesside, a dozen flights were due to leave yesterday and this weekend to Ibiza, Majorca and Minorca, and staff were working with tour operators to minimise the impact on passengers.

Holidaymakers were being urged to still check in at the time shown on travel documents.

But last night some were facing a wait of up to seven hours for flights to Mahon from Teesside, and the threat of cancellation loomed if the situation deteriorated.

Contingency plans were being made to find hotel accommodation if the situation got worse. Although children's entertainers were brought in to ease the boredom, frustration was last night beginning to show on the faces of the adults.

David Bell from Seaham, County Durham, waiting to fly out to Mahon for a seven-day family holiday, was left contemplating a six- day break. "It just puts a huge dampener on it," he said.

One woman said: "This is a real bad start to the holiday. We were hoping to be in our hotel tonight, but it looks like we might not even have left Teesside."

A Newcastle Airport spokeswoman said: "We don't know at this stage how long the industrial action will go on for, but we are monitoring the situation."

British journalist Humphrey Carter, of the Majorca Daily Bulletin, said the situation at Palma airport was becoming a "nightmare".

The queue for taxis stretched about half-a-mile, and holidaymakers were being brought back hours before their return flights because of the shortage of cabs.

The industrial action, which began at midnight on Thursday, was triggered by a dispute over pay and was expected to finish tomorrow.

A spokesman for Thomas Cook said the company was updating customers as the strike continued.