A computer glitch in the US led to delays of up to two hours for Bermuda passengers.

Flights in and out of the Island were hit yesterday after an air traffic control computer on the US East Coast went down for three and a half hours in the morning.

Worst hit were Delta Air Lines and US Airways, which experienced problems with services stretching into the evening as air traffic controllers worked to clear a four-to-five-hour backlog of flights.

The Delta inbound service from Atlanta was over two and a half hours late, finally touching down before 7 p.m. last night.

And the airline's flight to Boston was also over two hours late, finally taking off after 7 p.m.

A Delta spokesman said the computer problem at the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington had hit their routes, pushing back arrival and departure times.

US Airways saw delays of around 90 minutes for its Baltimore and Philadelphia services.

The Baltimore to Bermuda flight arrived at 1.15 p.m., two hours late, and the Philadelphia service touched down at 1.53 p.m., just over 60 minutes late.

And the returning service to the US were also hit. The Philadelphia flight left at 2.37 p.m., an hour late. And the Baltimore service took off at 1.34 p.m., just over one hour after its normal time.

Continental and American Airlines were not affected by the disruption.

Officials at the FAA, owner of the stricken computer, were quick to reassure travellers that the glitch did not appear to be related to the Y2K bug.

The problem caused departure delays at Boston's Logan Airport, the three New York area airports and Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, Philadelphia, the three Washington area airports and Raleigh-Durham in North Carolina, an FAA spokeswoman said.

The computer failure, which began at 6:16 a.m. and ended at 9:49 a.m. had a cascading effect on air travel across the United States, airline officials said.

FAA employees at a command centre in Herndon, Virginia, worked to clear the backlog of delayed flights and return air travel to normal, FAA spokeswoman Alison Duquette said after the problem ended.

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