Travellers face airport delays if Britain's airspace design is not updated, the UK's air traffic control company warned on Friday, at the start of a record-breaking summer flights season. "The ageing design of UK airspace means we will soon reach the limits of what can be managed without delays rising significantly," Jamie Hutchinson from NATS, formerly known as National Air Traffic Services, said in a statement.

A record-breaking 8,800 flights were scheduled to depart from the UK on Friday and more than 770,000 overall during the summer, also a record. The season figure was 40,000 more than 2016. The Department for Transport estimates that if the airspace remains unchanged, there will be 8,000 flight cancellations a year.

The rise in delays and cancellations would not only inconvenience passengers, but also damage the wider economy, NATS said. Plans to expand several British airports are already under way. On Friday, work started at Manchester airport as part of a £1 billion ($1.3 billion, 1.1 billion euro) programme to double the size of its Terminal 2.

The government has also backed the creation of a new third runway at London's Heathrow airport, but the decision has met with strong environmental opposition. Of the record 2.4 million British holidaymakers expected to travel overseas this weekend, more than 1.4 million will fly.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017