A technological glitch is believed to paralyze departure control systems in three key Chinese airports yesterday, delaying nearly 100 flights, Chinese media reported today.

The departure control system of TravelSky Technology Ltd, China's largest electronic air travel distribution system provider, had a failure at 1:35pm yesterday. Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, Shenzhen airport and Beijing Capital Airport, which all use the TravelSky system, had to stop their departure services.

Baiyun Airport launched its backup system and resumed its departures soon after. However, 20 flights and 2,000 passengers in the airport were affected, who were heading to Beijing, Shanghai, Changchun, Nanjing, Nanning, Changsha, Wenzhou, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

Another two airports launched emergency measures to restore their departure procedures.

The TravelSky departure control system resumed operation from 2:20 pm.

Shanghai airports avoid the problem by carrying out measures in advance.

On January 11 of this year, TravelSky also met with similar problems that disabled domestic airports in Shanghai, Chengdu and Beijing.

China had 135 civil airports by 2005, and most use the TravelSky departure control system, Oriental Morning Post reported today. If the company encounters technological problems, it will cause chain effect.

(Shanghai Daily October 11, 2006)