Hundreds of flights were delayed at Delhi airport, one of the busiest in the world, after a technical issue with an air traffic control messaging system on Thursday evening, according to India's airport authority and a source familiar with the situation.
The malfunction, which caused average delays of an hour for departures, had the potential to create further disruptions and lead to congestion at other airports across India. Arrival delays also increased due to the growing backlog on the ground, as indicated by Flightradar24 data.
Shares of IndiGo fell by 2% on Friday, while SpiceJet dropped by 1%, as the airlines, alongside the Air India Group, warned of continued delays. The airlines are expected to incur additional costs from passenger care and refunds due to the delays, which are likely to extend into Saturday.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) explained that the issue stemmed from the Automatic Message Switching System, which generates flight plans. The malfunction forced controllers to manually create flight plans, resulting in the delays.
The problem began on Thursday evening local time, the source added.
"Technical teams are working to restore the system as soon as possible," the AAI stated in a post on X. The agency did not provide further details about the cause of the malfunction.
Some airlines, including Air India Express, have assigned their own personnel to assist air traffic control in manually generating flight plans, another source said.
CNN NEWS 18 reported that authorities were investigating whether computer malware might have caused the issue, although Reuters could not independently confirm this claim.
This incident follows a ransomware attack in September that disrupted automated check-in systems at some of Europe's largest airports, leading to flight delays.
The technical issue in India caused approximately 25 flight departures to be delayed on Thursday, and over 175 on Friday at Delhi airport, the first source said. Delhi airport typically handles 60-70 aircraft movements per hour. Flightradar24 data showed that average departure delays were around 60 minutes.
The glitch also affected several international flights, with an ITA Airways flight to Rome delayed by nearly two hours and a Virgin Atlantic flight to London delayed by more than an hour. The AAI has not provided an estimated time for when the issue will be resolved, according to two airline sources.
Delhi airport, which handled around 78 million passengers in 2024, is the ninth busiest airport in the world, according to Airports Council International. The airport operator is majority-owned by GMR Airports, while air traffic control is managed by the AAI.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test-firing on Wednesday of a long-range surface-to-air missile at a launch site near its east coast, stat...
Countries including Britain, Canada, Germany and others on Wednesday condemned the Israeli security cabinet's approval of 19 new settlements in the oc...
A majority of Russians expect the war in Ukraine to end in 2026, state pollster VTsIOM said on Wednesday, in a sign that the Kremlin could be testing ...
Georgia's Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili has accused Brussels of using visa policy as a political weapon rather than a technical instrument....
U.S. President Donald Trump has invited the leaders of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to attend the G20 summit set to be hosted in Miami next year....
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test-firing on Wednesday of a long-range surface-to-air missile at a launch site near its east coast, state media KCNA reported on Thursday.
Countries including Britain, Canada, Germany and others on Wednesday condemned the Israeli security cabinet's approval of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying they violated international law and risked fuelling instability.
A majority of Russians expect the war in Ukraine to end in 2026, state pollster VTsIOM said on Wednesday, in a sign that the Kremlin could be testing public reaction to a possible peace settlement as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict intensify.
Georgia's Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili has accused Brussels of using visa policy as a political weapon rather than a technical instrument.
Thailand and Cambodia both reported fresh clashes on Wednesday, as the two sides prepared to hold military talks aimed at easing tensions along their shared border.
Libya’s chief of staff, Mohammed Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad, has died in a plane crash shortly after departing Türkiye’s capital, Ankara, the prime minister of Libya’s UN-recognised government has said.
The U.S. State Department has authorised a potential Foreign Military Sale of Advanced Medium Range Air‑to‑Air Missiles (AMRAAM) to Denmark, aimed at bolstering the Scandinavian nation’s air defence capabilities, the Pentagon’s Defence Security Cooperation Agency said on Monday.
Afghanistan and Iran have signed an implementation plan to strengthen regulation of food, medicine, and health products based on a 2023 cooperation agreement.
Negotiations conducted with the United States and European nations, aimed at ending the nearly four-year war with Russia, were "very close to a real result," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test-firing on Wednesday of a long-range surface-to-air missile at a launch site near its east coast, state media KCNA reported on Thursday.
Countries including Britain, Canada, Germany and others on Wednesday condemned the Israeli security cabinet's approval of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying they violated international law and risked fuelling instability.
A majority of Russians expect the war in Ukraine to end in 2026, state pollster VTsIOM said on Wednesday, in a sign that the Kremlin could be testing public reaction to a possible peace settlement as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict intensify.
The White House has instructed U.S. military forces to concentrate largely on enforcing a “quarantine” on Venezuelan oil exports for at least the next two months, a U.S. official told Reuters, signalling that Washington is prioritising economic pressure over direct military action against Caracas.
Military representatives from Cambodia and Thailand met in Chanthaburi province on Wednesday ahead of formal ceasefire talks at the 3rd special GBC meeting scheduled for 27th December.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment