Delhi Airport glitch UPDATE: Flight operations gradually improving after 36 hours of disruption

New Delhi: Flight operations at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport are “gradually improving” nearly 36 hours after a major technical glitch crippled the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.

According to flight-tracking platform Flightradar24, 129 flights (53 arrivals and 76 departures) were delayed on Saturday — a sharp drop from nearly 800 delays on Friday, when the outage hit its peak.

Average delays have now been reduced to five minutes for arrivals and around 19 minutes for departures, marking a significant improvement over the hours-long disruptions witnessed earlier.

In a statement on Saturday morning, the Delhi airport operator said: “The technical issue that affected the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS) that supports the ATC flight planning process is gradually improving.

Airline operations are returning to normal, and all authorities are working diligently to minimise any inconvenience caused. Passengers are advised to stay in touch with their airlines for the latest flight updates.”

IndiGo Airlines, among the carriers most affected, also confirmed that flight schedules were “progressively” stabilising.

“The temporary AMSS outage affecting ATC has now been resolved, and normal operations are being progressively restored at Delhi Airport and other impacted airports in the northern region. We thank passengers for their patience as systems return to normal,” IndiGo said in its advisory.

The airline added that while flight operations are being restored, minor delays and terminal congestion could continue for a few more hours.

CHAOS GIVES WAY TO CALM

The glitch first struck on Thursday evening, when ATC officers noticed missing flight plan data on their terminals. The Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS) — responsible for transmitting flight plans to controllers — had failed, forcing manual processing and slowing the system to a crawl.

By Friday, Delhi Airport had witnessed over 800 delays, with departure waits stretching up to an hour and long queues forming inside terminals. Several passengers took to social media, describing being stuck on the aircraft for long periods before take-off.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) assured that flight safety was never at risk:

“There was no impact on aircraft already in the air. The disruption was purely related to pre-departure message flow and flight plan processing,” the statement read.

With systems now stabilising, the Delhi airport — one of India’s busiest — appears to be slowly returning to normalcy, offering relief to thousands of travellers affected by one of the most significant ATC disruptions in recent years.