More than 24 hours after a technical problem led to flight delays at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI), the Delhi airport said airline operations were returning to normal but advised passengers to stay in touch with their airlines for the latest flight updates.
Are flights still delayed at IGI?
On Friday (Nov 7), arriving flights were delayed by an average of 50 minutes, Bloomberg reported, citing data from tracking website Flightradar24. It said departures were almost an hour late.
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On Saturday (Nov 8), the Delhi airport said airline operations were returning to normal and “all authorities concerned are working diligently to minimize any inconvenience caused”.
“Passengers are advised to stay in touch with their airlines for the latest flight information,” the Delhi airport said.
What caused the flight delay at Delhi IGI?
A computer glitch in the airport’s air traffic control systems delayed hundreds of flights at the Delhi airport on Friday.
The problem began on Thursday evening due to a technical issue with the automatic message switching system that caused delays in processing flight plan messages, according to a post by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) on X.
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As the problem was reported, additional staff were deployed to manually process flight plans during the outage, according to the post.
The distance between departing planes increased when scheduled manually, leading to inefficient use of airspace and delays, sources told Bloomberg.
Timeline of Delhi Airport Glitch
Around 8:30 am on Friday, Delhi Airport issued an alert saying, “Due to a technical issue with the air traffic control (ATC) system, there is a delay in flight operations at IGIA. Their team is actively working with all stakeholders, including DIAL, to resolve this as soon as possible.”
“Passengers are advised to stay in touch with their respective airlines for the latest flight updates. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused,” the advisory said.
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On 10:00 a.m on Friday, the Airports Authority of India said flight operations at Delhi airport were delayed due to a technical problem in the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS), which supports air traffic control data.
“Drivers are processing flight schedules manually, leading to some delays. Technical teams are working to restore the system as quickly as possible. We appreciate the understanding and cooperation of all passengers and stakeholders,” AAI added.
In an update around 11:20 am, the Delhi airport said the matter is being addressed on priority with close coordination between ATC, DIAL and other stakeholders.
On 12 hoursIndiGO has also issued an advisory that flights across all airlines at Delhi airport and some other airports in the northern region are delayed.
The airline advised checking the latest flight status on and “arriving a little earlier than usual to allow more time at the airport”.
The airline said: “We understand how inconvenient and uncertain this can be, especially for travel plans. Please be assured that the authorities are working to restore the system as quickly as possible and our ground teams are doing their best to support you and ensure service continuity.”
Even at 1:30 p.m on Friday, all airline operations at the Delhi airport remained delayed. An advisory said, “The concerned authorities are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible.”
On 23:00Delhi Airport Authority said that airline operations at Delhi Airport are returning to normal and all concerned authorities are working diligently to minimize any inconvenience caused.
Flyers were also advised to stay in touch with their airline for the latest flight updates.
On Saturday morningaround 6:40 a.m Delhi airport issued the same notice stating that the technical problem was gradually improving.”
