London Airspace Reopens After Computer Failure

British air traffic control has restored operations after a computer glitch Friday afternoon that caused delays at London's Heathrow Airport and other travel hubs. Meanwhile, airlines continued to catch up after the delays and the UK media are questioning the reliability of the system, which has had issues since it launched in 2002. A report in The Telegraph said the computer glitch lasted for 36 minutes and was not caused by a power failure. It was the second major computer failure in 12 months at the Swanwick control center in Hampshire -- last December, flights were reduced by 20 percent, causing travel delays, the Telegraph reported.

In July 2013, air traffic agency NATS had to restrict the number of aircraft flying across the south of England and those taking off from airports, according to a report from Bloomberg. In 2008, Heathrow and other airports in southern England had flight delays after a system failure, Bloomberg said.Swanwick's operations room manages the en route airspace over England and Wales up to the Scottish border as well as lower-altitude traffic around London airports, Bloomberg said. Lockheed Martin Corp. was the main contractor for the system, which opened almost six years late in 2002 and over budget after undergoing repeated software glitches, according to the report.

British Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin called the incident "unacceptable" and flight cancellations and delays affected about 10,000 passengers, The Telegraph reported."Any disruption to our aviation system is a matter of the utmost concern, especially at this time of year in the run up to the holiday season," he told the newspaper."Disruption on this scale is simply unacceptable and I have asked NATS for a full explanation of this evening's incident. I also want to know what steps will be taken to prevent this happening again."