Scandal of Britain's air traffic chaos

The astonishing extent of Britain's holiday flight chaos is revealed today.

A leaked memo from air traffic control chiefs admits for the first time the "truly awful" level of flight delays suffered by hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers every week.

It reveals that in a single week, there were 3,500 hours of flight delays, causing frustration to beleaguered passengers before their holidays have even begun.

Managers at the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) admit they are running a "dire" service and worry that they may not be able to salvage the situation.

The problems centre on the controversial £623 million air traffic control centre at Swanwick in Hampshire, which has been beset by problems even before it became operational earlier this year.

There have been computer crashes, causing gridlock over Britain's skies, and complaints from controllers that they cannot read the computer screens properly, leading to fears of aircraft near-misses. Until now, complaints have been made by union representatives. But now, managers have added their voices.

In the memo, NATS chief operating officer Colin Chisholm says: "A really truly awful week last week - 217,000 minutes of delay or so at Swanwick. That's a fairly dire position, I have to say, for our customers."

His internal staff briefing says senior executives are working "desperately hard" to reduce hold-ups over the busiest holiday season. Mr Chisholm goes on to say that managers are trying to improve the situation, but admits: "The adverse press we're suffering is really going to damage to us.

"You can't have an intelligent and detailed technical debate in the media. The trade union side and myself end up simplifying things and saying things that are not absolutely accurate in all senses."

His comments will come as little comfort to holidaymakers, who are flying out to the sun in record numbers - 1.8 million went abroad last weekend.

They have already been warned that strike action by baggage handlers and check-in staff, which is set to start next month at the height of the school holiday season, threatens to " cripple" services Gatwick and Heathrow.

The leak is the latest in a series of blows to the privatised service. It comes two days after a Commons transport select committee report severely criticised NATS over safety.

The MPs said: "We are not convinced that NATS systems are sufficiently robust to enable it to reduce the numbers of safety-critical staff."

Major concerns over the service were also raised earlier this month when it emerged that instances of air traffic controllers reporting excessive workloads had more than doubled this year - resulting in a near 100 per cent increase in delays in June compared with the same time last year.