Gale-force winds forced a plane with 220 holiday-makers aboard to divert from landing at Leeds-Bradford Airport last night.

Air-traffic controllers told the pilot of the Air 2000 flight from Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, to fly to Manchester instead after gales of more than 50-60 mph made it unsafe to land.

Passengers on the Airbus A321 who were due to land at 7.14pm at Leeds-Bradford eventually arrived at the airport almost three hours later after being bussed in from Manchester.

The plane was flown over to the airport this morning and Air 2000 services were not affected.

Philip Firth, head of marketing and business development at Leeds-Bradford, said: "The aircraft had to be diverted because we had very strong cross winds which made landing unsafe.

"This happens about three times a year and is purely a safety measure. It didn't affect any of the other services or the Air 2000 services running today.

"The decision not to land is based on safety grounds and is made in everyone's interests.

"The aircraft went across this morning to continue its duties for the rest of the week."

Mr Firth said it would be up to the tour operator whether compensation was offered.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.