A family spent months saving for airline tickets only to find they are now worthless.

Alice Camero, her partner and two children, who live in Trafalgar Road, Portslade, had booked tickets worth £264 with Gill Airways to fly to Newcastle next month.

However the airline ceased trading on Thursday after its bank withdrew funding.

Malcolm Naylor, chief executive of the Newcastle-based airline, said Gill's board was shocked at the Bank of Scotland decision.

He believed the airline could have withstood the current uncertainty in the airline industry, caused by the terrorist attacks in the US.

The decision has led to a huge let-down for 35-year-old civil servant Ms Camero, her partner Barry Sutton and children Clare, nine, and Charles, four.

The family had been due to fly from Stansted to Newcastle on October 27 for a long weekend with Ms Camero's sister.

Ms Camero said: "We spent two or three months saving for the tickets, which cost £66 each."

She tried without success to contact the airline, then rang Newcastle airport.

She said: "They read me their own press release stating Gill had ceased trading and saying what a loss they were to Tyneside. I now have four tickets which are totally worthless."

"It would have been the first time Charles had been to his aunt's. I have just been off work sick for a year and I didn't feel like taking two children all that way on a train."

The couple will now start saving for the trip again, but think it will be after Christmas before they can afford to make the journey.