Delay warning over air traffic shake-up

Passengers face weeks of disruption as two of the biggest changes to air traffic control in decades are introduced this weekend.

Flights across British air space will be hit for two months from midnight on Saturday with the switch to a new national air control centre at Swanwick in Hampshire.

National Air Traffic Service (Nats) warns of "minor delays" as the £623 million centre takes over from the one at West Drayton.

From midnight tonight passengers also face delays during a reorganisation of air space in the rest of Europe which aims to put thousands more aircraft into the skies each day.

Iain Findlay of the Institution of Professionals, Managers and Specialists, said: "Some passengers could feel the impact of both changes. We are talking delays of minutesand a slight overall slowdown." Both changes have been introduced at the quietest time of the year to minimise disruption and by the time the holiday season starts, the gradual transfer from West Drayton is expected to be complete.

However, much will depend on "teething problems" with a project already marked by delays. It was supposed to be operational in December 1996 but the complexity of the IT project - one of the biggest ever attempted in the country - resulted in its completion more than five years late.

The Swanwick centre, near Southampton, will control the busiest air space in Europe, and eventually bring a 30 per cent rise in capacity. However, passengers will have to wait until next year before there is a significant increase and it will be two months before it can offer the same capacity as West Drayton, which will retain control of the London airports. The Pennine Control centre at Manchester will control traffic over Greater Manchester.

However, delays caused by lack of runway space, limited infrastructure and not enough replacement aircraft, can be expected to continue - though there have been fewer delays recently due to reduced air traffic after the 11 September terrorist attacks.

In the European change, the minimum height between aircraft at cruising altitude is to be halved - from 2,000ft to 1,000ft - over the whole of Europe. Eurocontrol, the Brusselsbased body which coordinates air traffic control across the continent, says the change will open up much more air space but warns of delays during the first few weeks. Britain introduced the system in its airspace without incident last April.