Post by : Meena Ariff

Flight operations at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, one of India's busiest aviation hubs, are slowly returning to normal, nearly 36 hours after a significant glitch affected its Air Traffic Control (ATC) system.

Flight tracking platform Flightradar24 reported that approximately 129 flights (53 arrivals and 76 departures) were delayed on Saturday, marking a substantial improvement from the nearly 800 delays logged on Friday. Currently, arrivals face an average delay of five minutes, while departures experience an average delay of 19 minutes.

Delhi Airport officials confirmed that the problems tied to the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS)—which aids ATC with flight planning—are now stabilizing.

“Air traffic operations at Delhi Airport are on the mend, with all relevant departments working tirelessly to reduce any inconvenience. Passengers are encouraged to stay informed through their airlines for current flight updates,” the authority stated this morning.

Airlines Work on Recovery

IndiGo Airlines, among the carriers most impacted by the system failure, mentioned that flight operations are “gradually being restored.”

“The temporary outage affecting the AMSS that supports Air Traffic Control has been resolved, and operations are progressively coming back to normal at Delhi Airport and other affected airfields in Northern India. However, as operations stabilize, delays and congestion in terminals may persist for a while,” IndiGo declared in its statement.

The airline also noted that conditions are expected to revert to normal within the coming hours and advised passengers to verify real-time updates before heading out.

Travel Chaos and Passenger Discontent

The technical issue led to significant disruption at Delhi Airport starting Thursday evening, causing over 500 flight delays, which escalated to nearly 800 on Friday.

Departure delays ranged from 45 minutes to an hour, affecting numerous arrivals due to limited parking space and congested airspace.

Many travelers found themselves stranded inside terminals for hours, facing repeated delays displayed on departure boards. Some reported extended waits on board planes prior to take-off.

AAI Assures Safety Not Compromised

Sources indicated that problems arose when ATC staff observed missing flight plan data on their systems, which was later linked to malfunctioning AMSS that halted the automatic flow of messages. As a result, controllers had to manually process flight plans since the system ceased sending data to the auto track network.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) clarified that although the situation led to extensive disruptions, flight safety remained intact.

“There was no effect on aircraft in flight. The problems were strictly related to pre-departure messaging and processing of flight plans,” the AAI confirmed.

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