Delhi airport: Flight operations slowly normalizing after major ATC glitch
What's the story
Flight operations at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi are slowly returning to normal after a major technical glitch affected its Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. The disruption, which began on Thursday evening, caused nearly 800 flights to be delayed and around 20 to be canceled. Passengers were also stranded for hours as departure boards displayed repeated delays.
System failure
Glitch traced to automatic message switching system
The glitch was traced to the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS), which is vital for ATC data. The system's failure was first noticed on Thursday evening when ATC officers found missing flight plan data on their terminals. This led to manual preparation of flight plans by airlines as controllers were not receiving them automatically.
Safety assurance
Flight safety never compromised, says AAI
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has assured that despite the technical glitch, flight safety was "never compromised." "There was no impact on aircraft already in the air," it said. The disruption was limited to pre-departure message flow and processing of flight plans. A team from Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL) was summoned from Hyderabad to restore the system late Friday night.
Airline update
IndiGo confirms resolution of AMSS system outage
IndiGo Airlines also confirmed the resolution of the AMSS system outage in a statement on X. The airline thanked the airport and ATC authorities for their swift efforts in resolving the issue. It advised passengers to check their flight status before traveling and assured them that its ground teams were available to assist during this transition back to normalcy.