SEVEN girls have been left without their summer clothes after their outfits went on holiday without them.

Leesa Waddington, 19, and six friends, all from Haxby, were hoping to fly to the sunshine isle of Majorca for a relaxing beach holiday.

But instead only their suitcases boarded planes at Manchester.

The angry girls were warned it may take up to two months before their clothes returned.

The friends arrived at Manchester Airport on Saturday night ready for a week of partying and sunbathing.

Though warned of possible delays due to the Spanish coach drivers' strike, they were advised to check in their luggage and go through passport control.

But problems caused by industrial action on the Spanish isle led to the flight being delayed until the early hours of Sunday morning.

At 7am they were checked into a hotel in Manchester and warned they couldn't fly until the evening.

But when Monday morning found them still in England, the frustrated travellers decided that they would take a full refund rather than lose three days of their precious trip.

They were told their suitcases would be sent by courier, so they set off back to Haxby.

Later they were horrified to hear from an Airtours rep that the luggage had actually been sent on board the flight to Palma and that it could take two months to return.

"I couldn't believe it," said Leesa, of York Road, Haxby.

"You know what girls are like, my whole wardrobe was packed and now I am left with no clothes. Not only did we lose the holiday, we lost our clothes as well.

"Our baggage flew out ten hours after we had cancelled the holiday. At least we got our money back, but let's just hope the luggage soon follows."

Leesa did have praise for travel agents Going Places, whom she said had been "very helpful" during their ordeal.

An spokeswoman for Airtours International said that the rumour of a two-month wait was "absolutely untrue".

"That is not the case at all. We are confident that anyone who was separated from their luggage will get it back within a week from today.

"It seems likely that the plane was loaded with baggage a long time before take-off, and may have remained on the ground with their baggage inside while they were cancelling.

"We would like to apologise to these people, as we are doing to everyone who was caught up by the strike, but we are asking for a little understanding, given the exceptional circumstances we, and other airlines, were facing."

Leesa says a week is still not good enough.

"We've lost our holiday now, one that we'd all booked time off together to go on, and even a week is too long."

Thousands of passengers were stranded at British airports after the lightning strike over pay by coach drivers.

Drivers in Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza have agreed not to repeat the strikes.

Updated: 11:31 Thursday, July 05, 2001