Delhi Airport Flight Delays: ATC Glitch Causes Major Disruptions

Passengers departing from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) have found themselves waiting in long queues, at the end of lengthy delays. In some cases, they experienced significant delays, due to technical issues with the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. A software failure in the Aeronautical Message Switching System (AMSS) caused delays to more than 150 flights since Thursday night.

What Caused the Delay?

Officials at the airport indicated that the AMSS, which controls flight plans for arrivals and departures, had a software issue that has disrupted normal air traffic. The software issue prevented them from being able to manage flights and caused the “stack up” for takeoffs and landings.

The sources said that the system was overloaded. They had to manually process flight information, which is a really slow method and created further delays.

Impact on Flights and Passengers

By Friday morning, many outbound flights were delayed by more than an hour. Incoming flights were left holding due to a lack of available parking places at the airport. Some airlines including IndiGo, Air India, and SpiceJet have issued advisories to passengers. It asked them to check the status of their flight before arriving at the airport.

IndiGo shared on X (formerly known as Twitter):

“Due to a technical issue with the ATC (Air Traffic Control) system, flight operations at Delhi Airport are delayed at this time.”

“Thank you for your understanding as we work hard to fix the issue.”

Air India similarly acknowledged the situation. They explained it was out of their control and that crews were doing everything they can to mitigate any disruptions.

How are officials responding?

A team from the Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL) located in Hyderabad has been working with officials at the airport to resolve the situation. The AMSS situation has been ongoing for more than two days. Technicians were attempting to stabilize the system in order to get seamless flight operations back up and running.

Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), which operates the airport, released a statement indicating that all entities were cooperating with the objective of solving the situation.

“The advisory said our sincere apologies for the inconvenience. We are working extremely hard to restore normal operation as soon as possible.”

GPS Spoofing and Airspace Challenges

Intriguingly, this situation has arisen after another aviation issue in the airspace above Delhi, GPS spoofing. Although they are not related, both events raised questions about India’s air traffic management capabilities and the complexity of managing over 1,500 flights each day at India’s busiest airport.

Travelers Advised to Stay Up to Date

Due to often changing flight times, airlines have been suggesting that travelers monitor their flights on official websites and via social media. Air traffic is expected to ease when the AMSS software is back to normal.

A Broader Aviation Topic

Delhi ATC’s event reminds us how reliant aviation is on technology today. When a small software component does not function, it can cause a domino effect through flight schedules impacting many travelers in a significant way. The experience emphasizes the need for redundancy and quicker troubleshooting of display issues before we have disruption in this respect again.

In trending news today, the technical issue at Delhi airport reminded us of the importance of technology management in aviation, as a few hours of disruption can create turbulence in multiple cities.