PASSENGERS heading to and from France at Southampton Airport face a second day of disruption tomorrow.

Thousands of Easter holiday air passengers have had their travel plans wrecked by a strike by French air traffic controllers.

And with the stoppage due to carry on tomorrow, airlines have already axed scores of Thursday flights.

Tomorrow Southampton Airport Flybe flights to and from Bergerac, La Rochelle and Paris Orly have been cancelled.

To make matters worse, the controllers are due to stage another stoppage next week and yet another one at the end of this month.

Ryanair axed more than 250 flights today while easyJet, which had hoped to limit Wednesday's cancellations to 118, had to eventually scrap as many as 198 services.

The easyJet axings included 52 services either departing or arriving at UK airports, while around 70 of Ryanair's cancelled flights today were UK or Irish ones.

EasyJet said that it was cancelling 194 flights tomorrow of which 48 were either leaving or arriving at UK airports.

Ryanair said: ''We sincerely apologise to all customers affected by this unwarranted strike action and we call on the EU and French authorities to take measures to prevent any further disruption.

''It's grossly unfair that thousands of European travellers will once again have their travel plans disrupted by the selfish actions of a tiny number of French air traffic control workers.''

The strikers are protesting against restructuring plans that, they say, threaten the air navigation service in France.

Simon McNamara, director general of the European Regions Airline Association, said: ''This action, during one of the busiest passenger traffic weeks of the year, is completely unjustified and unreasonable.

''Europe's airlines and passengers continue to suffer at the hands of air traffic control unions who are reluctant to recognise the opportunities for Europe that the modernisation of its air traffic management system presents.''