Swanwick technical failure UPDATE 21:45

Chief Executive, Richard Deakin said: “The air traffic control systems used by NATS are robust and have contingency built in to them so that if a problem occurs, it can be identified quickly and resolved. Our contingency plans worked as they should have done yesterday (Friday 12 December) and allowed our complex systems to be fully back up and running after 45 minutes.

Failures like this are extremely rare, but when they occur it is because they are unique and have not been seen before. If they do occur, root causes are identified and corrections made to prevent them happening again. We have never seen a repeat occurrence once a fix has been made. Following the issue on Friday, the root cause was identified, a correction put in place and we do not expect that failure to repeat.

Once the backlog in the network has been caught up over this weekend, this issue will not cause further disruption over the holiday season. We are confident in the strength of the systems and the people we use to successfully manage over two million flights every year.

Safety was not compromised at any time but we do sincerely apologise for the delays and inconvenience caused to passengers and our airport and airline customers.”