Major disruption at Delhi Airport as ATC glitch delays many flights | Fusion - WeRIndia

Air travel across northern India was severely disrupted on Friday after a major technical snag hit Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA).

The glitch in the Air Traffic Control system led to more than 100 flight delays, leaving passengers stranded and schedules in disarray.

The issue began on Thursday evening when the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS) developed a fault.

This crucial network supplies data to the Auto Track System (ATS), which generates flight plans for air traffic controllers.

With the automatic system down, controllers were forced to manually prepare flight plans using limited data.

This manual process proved slow and cumbersome, causing widespread airspace congestion around Delhi.

As a result, departure delays averaged 45-50 minutes by 9 a.m., according to tracking website Flightradar24.

A senior airport official said that the problem was with the AMSS, which fed the Auto Track System, and that controllers were preparing flight plans manually, which was taking time.

Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) confirmed that flight operations were affected by the ATC issue.

The operator added that its teams were working with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to restore normal operations quickly.

Meanwhile, airlines such as IndiGo and SpiceJet issued travel advisories warning passengers about possible delays.

IndiGo posted on X that its staff were assisting stranded travellers, while SpiceJet announced that all arrivals and departures “might get affected” due to congestion.

Passengers at IGIA faced long queues, extended waits onboard aircraft, and repeated rescheduling announcements.

Many vented their frustration on social media, citing poor communication and a lack of updates from airlines.

By noon, technicians were still working to restore the AMSS, and officials cautioned that the backlog could take several hours to clear.

The disruption also triggered ripple delays at nearby airports, including Lucknow, Jaipur, Chandigarh, and Amritsar.

A senior AAI official said that ATC operations were stable but slower than usual and that restoration work was in progress.

Despite the partial recovery, passengers were advised to check flight statuses before going to the airport to avoid further inconvenience.

Image Credit: Anonymous8010, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Image Reference: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Delhi_Airport_Aerial_View.png