Hundreds of passengers wait in line for U.S. departures at Vancouver International Airport on Monday. (Steve Lus/CBC)

Long delays at Vancouver International Airport on Monday were caused by a computer backup system that failed to kick in, according to an Air Canada official, who is hoping the problems will be solved in time for the Olympics.

"We weren't satisfied with what took place. The Vancouver Airport Authority and the airlines weren't satisfied as well," said Duncan Dee, Air Canada's executive vice-president.

Departing passengers were delayed up to four hours after the computer check-in system crashed on Monday morning.

The crash compounded delays already caused by the last-minute introduction of new carry-on baggage restrictions on U.S. bound flights, which were brought in following an attempted terrorist attack on a jetliner headed for Detroit on Christmas Day.

Dee said the computer crash was made worse when backup systems failed as well, forcing airline staff to check in passengers by hand and by phone.

"It wasn't an airline specific outage, we understand that backup systems were in place, but unfortunately they did not kick in," said Dee.

"The review going forward, especially for 2010, is to make sure all these backup systems are in place and in fact if we do face … a similar [incident], then they kick in and it should be seamless to the customer," he said.

The computer system was up and running by Monday afternoon, but delays caused by the new security protocols continued on Tuesday, Dee said.