Special flights were heading for Florida today to bring home thousands of Britons stranded by Hurricane Frances.

But more bad weather in the form of Hurricane Ivan is menacing the Caribbean. Virgin Atlantic Airways cancelled today's Gatwick-Barbados flight while British Airways put its Gatwick-Barbados service back 24 hours. BA's Gatwick-Antigua flight today was not continuing to Grenada, another of the islands threatened by Ivan.

With Frances now causing damage in northern Florida, the main airports in the south of the state reopened today, allowing UK holiday companies and airlines to set about bringing back stranded tourists.

As well as operating four scheduled services to Florida today, Virgin Atlantic sent out four extra flights from London to Orlando, while Thomas Cook Airlines operated four rescue flights to Orlando from Manchester, Glasgow and Gatwick.

BA was able to run all its scheduled Florida services today - two from Heathrow to Miami, one from Gatwick to Tampa and one from Gatwick to Orlando.

Around 6,000 Britons on package tours have been stuck in Florida since the weekend because of the airports' closure. Most have been able to stay on in their original hotel while others have been moved inland.

The Association of British Travel Agents said: "It had been hoped to start flying out rescue flights on Monday but it now looks as if the last of the delayed Britons will not be back in the UK until Thursday morning."

UK tour operators and airlines are now worried about Hurricane Ivan which looks set to be at least as destructive as Frances.

ABTA said: "There are about 3,000 tourists in Barbados at the moment and we understand that Ivan could also hit Grenada and the Dominican Republic. Holiday companies are contacting clients in the Caribbean giving them up-to-date information about what's happening."

BA said it hoped to operate today's postponed London-Barbados flight tomorrow, along with Wednesday's scheduled London-Barbados service, but would wait to see how Ivan developed.