Reading, UK -- (SBWire) -- 12/17/2013 --For thousands of passengers across the country, hoping to get away just before the Christmas period, a phone glitch at the National Air Traffic Control Systems’ (NATS) main operations centre in Swanwick has caused dismay and disruption. When NATS were about to switch over to day operations on Saturday morning, their complex communication network broke down. This caused many delays and cancellations to flights on Saturday, particularly flights to and from the London airports.

NATS have released a statement saying that things have returned to normal and have responded to criticism that there was not a contingency in place by saying that it was not as simple as their phones not working. According to NATS, the communications system is one of the biggest of its kind, necessary to process the vast amount of information that each flight requires. This will come as little comfort to some of the many people attempting to catch flights from the capital, who at best will have had their holiday cut short by half a day.

Northern airports had reported some disruption but they operated as close to normal, the majority of delays were to London. Birmingham airport, for instance noted that there were as few as 60 flights and those were delayed to just under an hour. NATS revealed that in comparison to the previous Saturday, they had failed to process 400 flights as of 4 pm and while the communication breakdown was significant, it was not total failure, instead it was likened to a rail system running a restricted service. The disruption had a knock on effect with the rest of Europe, with an estimated 8% or 1300 of all European flights suffering from delays. Customers of holiday organisers like Travelup Flights will be pleased to know that ‘customers on cancelled services of course have the opportunity to claim a refund or rebook’ (A spokeswoman for British Airways).

About Travelup
Over ten years in the business has seen Travelup Flights grow to organising holidays for many customers in the UK. The key relationships that the company has developed with major businesses in the travel industry have enabled Travelup ATOL 7227 to deliver the highest quality holidays for their customers. Agents at the company will take the hassle out of booking holidays by organising every aspect.

Travelup Contact | Media:
Name: Willie O’Neil
Email Address: willie@travelup.co.uk
Company Location: Reading
Website Address: www.travelup.co.uk