LONDON, June 3 (UPI) -- An early morning air traffic control system glitch disrupted air travel in England for several hours Thursday.
Flights began to take off normally at London and Manchester airports at around 9 a.m. local time, amid assurances that the computer system would not crash again.
"There is a serious disruption at Heathrow as a result of the air traffic control situation," said Heathrow airport spokesman Mark Pearson when the system crashed. "There is an average of two hour delays on departures and restrictions on arrivals."
Travelers a Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted airports were also affected by the glitch, blamed on a problem with the flight data processing system, The Telegraph reported.
Working under manual dispatch, Gatwick was operating around 10 outbound flights an hour, but would normally handle 30 or 40. Stansted was operating at around 60 percent capacity, according to airport operator BAA.
