India fixes technical glitch disrupting Delhi airport flights
New Delhi: After a tense 24 hours that left hundreds of passengers stranded and flight schedules in chaos, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) announced late Friday that a technical glitch in Delhi’s air traffic management system had finally been resolved. The disruption had crippled operations at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) — one of the busiest in the world — and triggered widespread flight delays across northern India.
In a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter), the AAI confirmed that the IP-based Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS), which had malfunctioned on Thursday evening, was now “up and running.” The AMSS is a critical system that automatically generates and relays flight plans between air traffic controllers and airlines. When it failed, flight plans had to be processed manually, severely slowing operations and causing a cascading effect of delays.
“The issue was detected in the AMSS. The system has been restored and is functioning,” the AAI said, adding that it would take some time for operations to return to normal because of the massive backlog.
According to officials familiar with the situation, the glitch first appeared around 6 p.m. on Thursday, instantly affecting Delhi airport’s ability to clear flight plans electronically. As a result, controllers had to revert to manual procedures, painstakingly typing and verifying each flight plan — a process that normally takes seconds under the automated system.
By Friday evening, more than 200 flights were delayed, including both domestic and international services. Data from Flightradar24 showed that the average departure delay from Delhi was around 60 minutes, with some flights grounded for much longer.
Airlines scrambled to cope. IndiGo, which controls nearly 60% of India’s domestic aviation market, confirmed that its operations at Delhi and other northern airports were “gradually returning to normal” following AAI’s restoration announcement. Meanwhile, Air India Express and other carriers reportedly deployed additional staff to air traffic control rooms to assist in manually generating flight plans during the outage.
“This was an unprecedented situation,” said one airline official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Even though the AAI’s technical teams worked around the clock, the ripple effects were enormous. Once flight schedules go off track in Delhi, it affects airports across the country.”
The Delhi airport, operated by GMR Airports, handles 60–70 aircraft movements per hour and serves as the country’s primary international gateway. In 2024, it processed over 78 million passengers, making it the ninth busiest airport in the world, according to data from Airports Council International (ACI).
The glitch also disrupted international flight operations, with several foreign carriers facing long delays. A Virgin Atlantic flight to London departed more than an hour behind schedule, while an ITA Airways service to Rome was delayed by nearly two hours. Passengers took to social media to vent their frustration, posting images of long queues and departure boards filled with delayed flights.
Sources told Reuters that the technical failure bore no signs of a cyberattack but came just weeks after a major ransomware incident that had paralyzed check-in systems at several European airports in September. While there is no evidence linking the two, the proximity of the events has reignited concerns about the vulnerability of global aviation systems to cyber and technical threats.
A senior AAI official said the problem was confined to the AMSS server in Delhi and did not affect radar or communication systems, which continued to function normally. “Safety was never compromised,” the official emphasized. “The challenge was operational — we had to slow down movements to ensure accuracy while working manually.”
Aviation experts said the incident highlighted the need for redundant backup systems and greater digital resilience in India’s rapidly growing aviation sector. “Delhi is a high-volume hub that operates at near-capacity most of the time,” said aviation analyst Kapil Kaul. “Any breakdown, even for a few hours, leads to massive disruptions. The AAI must ensure such critical systems have robust backups.”
By late Friday night, the AAI confirmed that flight plans were once again being automatically processed and that air traffic controllers were gradually clearing the backlog. However, airlines warned that delays could spill over into the weekend as crews and aircraft repositioned to restore normal schedules.
For passengers who spent hours waiting in crowded terminals, the relief was palpable but tempered with frustration. “I was supposed to be in Bengaluru last night,” said Ravi Sharma, a software engineer stuck at Terminal 2. “I appreciate that the system is working again, but there needs to be better communication when things like this happen.”
As flights slowly resumed and departure boards began to clear, India’s busiest airport inched back toward normalcy — a reminder that even in an age of advanced automation, a single technical fault can ground the world’s ninth-busiest airport in minutes.