A leaked report has blamed the new state-of-the-art air traffic control system at Swanwick for increased flight delays at Gatwick.

The report published in Computer Weekly says flight delays doubled in the last week in June compared with the same period in 2001.

Airlines faced 169,401 minutes of delays - the equivalent of 16 days - in the week ending June 30, compared with 83,469 minutes in the same week last year.

National Air Traffic Control Services (Nats), which runs the £623 million centre in Hampshire, says the delays were due to a number of factors including staff shortages.

A Nats spokesman said: "We will only handle the amount of traffic we can safely move through UK airspace."

Meanwhile, airport bosses have blamed air traffic control disputes and the jubilee bank holidays for a dip in passenger numbers at Gatwick.

It handled three million passengers in June, a drop of 8.6 per cent on last year's figures.

The figures buck the recent upward trend as airports recover from the impact of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

The North Atlantic market fell 9.4 per cent during June, while other long-haul services were down three per cent.

Domestic traffic remained strong, up 5.3 per cent because of the continued growth of low-cost airlines.

The extra bank holiday also helped European charter traffic rise by 4.1 per cent.

But Irish traffic was down 1.1 per cent because of the recent Aer Lingus pilots' strike.

European scheduled traffic was down 2.4 per cent in the wake of Europe-wide and national air traffic control disputes.

Overall, British Airports Authority handled 11.6 million passengers at its seven UK airports, a drop of 1.4 per cent on last year.