Around one-fifth of flights in the UK were disrupted as a result of software problems.

The issue arose at the National Air Traffic Services (Nats) Swanwick control centre, which is responsible for handling traffic in the south of England. As such, Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick were among the locations most heavily affected.

Many services were delayed by up to two hours when it the glitch occurred on Saturday (December 7th) morning.

Heathrow was forced to cancel 228 of its services, around 15 per cent of the daily total.

A spokesperson for Nats said: "The reduction in capacity has had a disproportionate effect on southern England because it is extremely complex and busy airspace and we sincerely regret inconvenience to our airline customers and their passengers."

The Swanwick control centre is used to enable air traffic control agencies to communicate with partners across the UK and Europe and it is one of the biggest of its kind.

Although focused in the south, airports as far north as Manchester, Leeds Bradford, Belfast and Dublin also experienced some difficulties on the day.