Operations at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport were thrown into disarray after a major air traffic communication system failure disrupted nearly two-thirds of all scheduled flights. The outage, which began Thursday afternoon, crippled the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS) and forced air traffic controllers to manually process flight plans for more than 30 hours, causing widespread delays across India’s busiest aviation hub.
By late Friday night, 978 flights had been delayed, with passengers stranded for up to 12 hours. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) confirmed that the system was restored around 9 p.m. Friday but warned that residual delays would continue as automated operations gradually normalize. Officials have yet to determine the root cause of the malfunction or why backup systems failed to activate.
The ripple effects of the failure extended to other major airports, including Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Chennai, as Delhi handles nearly 1,500 flights daily. Airlines such as IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet, and Akasa Air reported severe disruptions, urging passengers to check flight updates before arriving at the airport.
Authorities have initiated a review of the incident and are expediting the rollout of a new national Air Traffic Message Handling System (AMHS) to prevent future breakdowns. Aviation experts have criticized the delay in implementing backup protocols and called for phased testing of new infrastructure before deployment at major airports.
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