AIRLINE passengers from across Derbyshire will be contacting travel agents and airlines to find out how to get refunds for unused plane tickets.

Oceans Travel, which is based in Normanton, said its phones had been ringing non-stop with customers needing advice about what they can do.

These included passengers who were due to fly out of the UK with major airlines such as Virgin Atlantic, British Airways and Air India.

Paramjit Kaur, from the Pear Tree Road travel agent, said staff have been trying to keep their customers as up-to-date as they can.

She said: "We deal with more than 100 airlines and everybody is in the same boat because, if the UK airspace is closed, every single one of them is affected.

"People have been sending unused tickets back to us and we have been sending them on to the airlines so they can get refunds.

"We are also warning people in advance not to go to their airports because we don't want them to waste their time or their money."

Ms Kaur said that extra costs incurred because of the situation, such as hotel bookings or taxi fares, would have to be claimed back through customers' travel insurance policies on an individual basis.

She added: "It depends what type of travel insurance people have because some policies don't cover natural disasters, which this would be classed as.

"We would recommend that people check the small print in their insurance policies to check whether they would be covered."