Budget airline Zoom has defended the fact that passengers suffered lengthy delays over the festive period, saying it made every effort to provide good service.

A spokeswoman acknowledged some passengers were stranded for hours, but commented: "Zoom have done their best to avoid disruption wherever they can and instead of cancelling flights and leaving customers stranded – which is what other airlines have done – Zoom have chosen to operate flights, albeit with delays.

"Zoom have not cancelled a single flight over this period and it means that every single one of Zoom's customers got to where they needed to be, albeit with flight delays as a result. Zoom could, in all fairness, have cancelled flights outright but it would have left a lot of passengers stranded and Zoom aimed to avoid that."

The spokeswoman was speaking yesterday in response to a January 2 report that saw one passenger brand the airline "a shambles" after its New Year's Day flight to London was delayed by more than 12 hours.

Another passenger – caught up in an eight-hour delay affecting the flight from London on New Year's Eve – vowed she would never fly with Zoom again.

Bermuda's airport manager Aaron Adderley said at the time that he was aware of complaints, and planned to meet Zoom representatives to discuss them.

According to yesterday's statement from the airline: "A number of flight delays occurred over the Christmas and New Year period, some as a direct result of the weather conditions at (London) Gatwick prior to Christmas which led to extensive delays. Other delays have persisted as a result of the severe impact of those original weather delays on our aircrew and routine maintenance schedules."

Zoom also hit the headlines last month when would-be passengers complained their bookings on the London-Bermuda route had been cancelled at short notice by e-mail.

A statement from the airline at the time said: "We are only suspending flights between Gatwick and Bermuda over the quieter winter months and the full service will resume in May, 2008."

However, the spokeswoman said yesterday that although flights will cease from Monday January 7, a limited service will resume on March 14.

Zoom first started flying the London-Bermuda route in June 2007, causing British Airways to lose its long-standing monopoly and slash its prices.