Thousands of passengers were stranded at Gatwick today after all flights to the US were cancelled.

The airport was eerily quiet early this morning and officials urged people to contact airlines before travelling to the airport.

All of the more than 30 daily flights between Gatwick and the US and Canada have been cancelled, affecting about 7,000 passengers.

British Airways has also cancelled its flights to Tel Aviv and Islamabad.

Many stranded passengers travelled to Brighton to stay in hotels until their flights were given clearance.

An airport spokesman said: "Normally first thing we have thousands of passengers coming in from the States and thousands going out.

"But today the check-in areas for transatlantic flights are deserted."

The airport has stepped up its security with hundreds of workers having their security passes scrutinised as they turned up for work this morning.

Last night passengers whose flights were turned back from the US, said they had no idea what had happened.

Passenger Harriet Lyons, 27, who was flying to Florida with her parents, said there was no panic on the flight, "We knew nothing at all.

"We were four-and-a-half hours into our flight and we were told we were turning back because America had shut down."

All private flights coming in and out of Shoreham Airport have been cancelled following tough new restrictions on UK flights announced by Tony Blair yesterday.

Airport manager John Haffenden said only commercial planes whose owners had an Air Operators Certificate would be allowed to travel.

Mr Haffenden said: "There is a blanket crackdown on all non-commercially owned planes throughout the UK at the moment and we are obviously complying with that."

For information on Gatwick flights phone 0870 0002468.

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