What began as an ordinary morning at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) quickly devolved into disorder. By 9:30 a.m., departure boards were flashing red across terminals, with over 300 domestic and international flights delayed. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) later confirmed that a malfunction in the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS)—a key component of Air Traffic Control (ATC)—had forced controllers to switch to manual operations.
The impact was immediate and widespread. Flights were held at gates for hours, passengers crowded customer service counters, and taxiways turned into waiting zones. Airlines from Air India to IndiGo and SpiceJet scrambled to issue advisories, asking passengers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.
“Controllers are processing flight plans manually, leading to delays,” the AAI said in a statement, adding that technical teams were “working to restore the system at the earliest.” The breakdown effectively slowed India’s most congested aviation hub—handling over 1,500 flight movements a day—to a crawl.
Inside the Control Tower: A System Under Strain
The AMSS is an essential digital backbone for ATC operations. It automates the exchange of flight plans, weather data, and aircraft movement information between controllers and pilots. When the system failed, controllers reverted to paper and voice coordination, a process efficient decades ago but unfit for today’s high-volume airspace.
A senior aviation official described the situation as “controlled chaos.” With limited redundancy built into the system, even a temporary fault cascaded across flight networks. “When Delhi’s ATC slows down, it ripples through the country,” said the official. “Every minute of delay multiplies across connecting flights in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and beyond.”
The failure has reignited questions about India’s aviation digital resilience—especially given that the outage followed a separate incident earlier in the week involving suspected GPS spoofing, which forced flight diversions and triggered congestion in northern air corridors.
Airlines and Passengers Caught in the Crossfire
Airlines were quick to issue apologies, but few could ease the frustration of passengers stranded in terminals. Air India reported “longer wait times both on the ground and onboard,” while IndiGo and SpiceJet said the disruption had affected flights “across Delhi and several northern regions.”
Social media was flooded with images of packed boarding areas and passengers sprawled across the floor. “I’ve missed a connection to Frankfurt,” said a traveller stuck in Terminal 3. “No information, no movement—just chaos.”
Industry experts noted that while airlines bear the brunt of passenger anger, the problem stemmed from infrastructure lag rather than operational lapses. “ATC systems are the invisible heart of aviation,” said aviation analyst Karan Bhasin. “When that heart skips a beat, everything else stops.”
A Wake-Up Call for Indian Aviation
The Indira Gandhi International Airport, managed by Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), has long been a symbol of India’s modernization. Yet, this week’s turbulence has exposed the tension between rapid growth and technological vulnerability.
India’s domestic air traffic has surged post-pandemic, with airports nationwide handling record passenger volumes. But upgrades in ATC technology, cybersecurity, and redundancy planning have lagged behind. The AAI has announced a review of system safeguards following the Delhi incident, but experts argue that reactive maintenance is not enough.
“India’s aviation future depends on confidence,” said a former Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official. “When glitches like these ground hundreds of flights, they shake not only schedules but public trust.”
For the passengers still waiting in Delhi’s crowded terminals, that trust may take longer to restore than the systems that failed them.
