Birmingham Airport hit by computer glitch

The malfunction of the National Air Traffic Services (Nats) computer last week caused knock-on effects at Birmingham Airport over the weekend, it has been reported.

Around ten flights experienced minor delays following the problem, which occurred just before 16:00 BST on Thursday afternoon.

Immediately after the fault in the computer system British Airways (BA) was forced to cancel flights at Heathrow Airport, before grounding an additional number of short-haul flights on Saturday.

A spokesman for Birmingham Airport said: "We came off quite well compared to many other airports."

Reports also indicate Luton Airport and Cardiff Airport were among a number of other terminals where passengers faced delays and cancellations due to the technical issue.

Speaking at the weekend, Nats' operational performance director Ian Hall apologised for the problem and sought to reassure passengers that safety was never compromised.

Birmingham Airport is the sixth largest airport in the UK, handling over nine million passengers in 2006, with levels of business travel second only to Heathrow Airport.

Posted by Graham Greenaway on the 29/09/2008 16:11:58
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