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Over 800 flights were delayed and several cancelled after a 15-hour glitch in the air traffic control’s Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS), normal operations expected soon.
New Delhi, Nov 8: Flight operations at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) India’s busiest airport are slowly returning to normal on Saturday morning, following a massive disruption caused by a technical glitch in the air traffic control system that delayed more than 800 flights on Friday.
The glitch occurred in the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS), which plays a crucial role in flight planning. The system malfunctioned for over 15 hours starting around 5:45 am on Friday before the Airports Authority of India (AAI) announced that the issue had been resolved around 9 pm.
The IGI Airport, which handles more than 1,500 daily flight movements across its four runways, witnessed significant delays and a few cancellations due to the outage. In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), the airport operator Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) said, “Airline operations at Delhi Airport are returning to normal, and all concerned authorities are working diligently to minimise any inconvenience caused.”
Meanwhile, IndiGo Airlines, India’s largest carrier, stated that the ATC and DIAL teams were working on priority to stabilise systems and restore smooth operations. “The situation is expected to be normalised over the next few hours. Some departure and arrival timings may continue to be adjusted,” the airline said.
According to Flightradar24.com, more than 200 flights were delayed on Saturday morning, though it remains unclear if these were solely due to residual effects of the AMSS glitch.
Sources revealed that the outage forced air traffic controllers to manually prepare flight plans a time consuming process prompting the AAI to deploy additional staff to ensure safe and uninterrupted operations.
The AAI confirmed that the technical issue in the IP-based AMSS system, first detected on November 6, has been fixed with assistance from the Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) and the system’s Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM).
“The AMSS systems are now functional. Due to some backlogs, there may still be minor delays in automated operations, but the situation will soon be fully normal,” the AAI stated.
The incident underscores the critical role of robust digital infrastructure in air traffic management, especially at high-traffic hubs like Delhi, which handles millions of passengers every month.
