ATC system glitch delays over 800 flights in Delhi’s IGI airport; AAI addresses tech issue

Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) plunged into chaos on Friday, as more than 800 domestic and international flights were delayed due to the air traffic control system’s technical issue, which was later addressed by the AAI.The Airports Authority of India (AAI) also said that due to some backlogs, there may be some delays in the normal functioning of automated operations, but the situation will be normal soon.All airline operations at the IGIA — which is the country’s busiest airport — were impacted due to a technical issue in the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS), which supports air traffic control data.Sources said more than 800 flights were delayed, and at least 20 flights were cancelled.The national capital’s Indira Gandhi International Airport handles more than 1,500 flight movements daily.The AAI, in a post on X at 8:56 pm, said it has addressed the “technical issue in the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS), which caused delays in processing flight plan messages.”The issue was detected in the IP-based AMSS system on November 6.”The OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) was engaged, and additional staff were deployed to manually process Flight Plans for the Air Traffic Control system to ensure uninterrupted and safe air traffic operations immediately.”A team of ECIL officials and AAI personnel is still on site. The AMSS systems are up and functional now. Due to some backlogs, there may be some delays in the normal functioning of automated operations, but the situation will be normal soon,” the AAI said in another post on X.ECIL (Electronics Corporation of India Ltd) officials from Hyderabad came to the national capital to help in addressing the technical issue. An enquiry will be conducted to find out the reasons that resulted in the technical issue, sources said.The AAI, which provides air traffic control, navigation and other services, deployed additional manpower to manually process flight plans.The technical issue was detected on November 6, and immediately, a review meeting was conducted by the Civil Aviation Secretary, along with AAI Chairman, AAI Member ANS and other officials, and necessary directions were given to address the issue, as per the AAI post.Information available on the flight tracking website Flightradar24.com showed that over 800 flights have been delayed at the airport, and the delay for departing flights is around 50 minutes at the Delhi airport.The count of flights includes arrivals as well as departures.AAI, in a statement, also said that additional manpower was deployed to manually process flight plans, ensuring continuity and safety of air traffic control operations without disruption.”A dedicated team, comprising officials from Electronics Corporation of India Limited and AAI, continues to remain on-site to oversee system stability and performance,” the statement said.Earlier in the day, IndiGo, Air India, Air India Express, SpiceJet, and Akasa Air said there were delays in their flights at the Delhi airport due to an issue with the air traffic control system.According to sources, there were long queues near the boarding gates, and hundreds of passengers were waiting inside the airport terminals for flight updates. There were some issues with the AMSS that provides the information for the Auto Track System, which gives the flight plans, one of the sources said earlier.With the system issues continuing, air traffic controllers are preparing the flight plans manually with available data, which is a time-consuming process, and as a result, many flights are getting delayed, the sources said during the day.Earlier, Delhi airport operator DIAL said all airline operations at the airport are currently delayed and that the concerned authorities were working on resolving the issue at the earliest.



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