Over 300 Flights Hit: Technical Snag Triggers Chaos at Delhi Airport; Key Developments
Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), one of the world's busiest, experienced significant disruptions on Friday, November 7, 2025, due to a technical malfunction in the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. The glitch, which impacted the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS), led to substantial delays, affecting over 300 flights and causing considerable inconvenience to passengers.
The AMSS is crucial for relaying flight plan data to the Auto Track System (ATS), and its disruption forced air traffic controllers to manually process flight plans. This manual workaround significantly slowed down operations, resulting in widespread delays. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) confirmed the technical issue and stated that teams are working to restore the system as quickly as possible.
The disruption began on Thursday evening and intensified on Friday, with average departure delays reaching 56 minutes and arrival delays averaging 68 minutes. Flights scheduled for takeoff between 6:00 AM and 8:00 AM were particularly affected. While aircraft landings continued, take-offs were significantly hampered.
Several airlines, including Air India, IndiGo, and SpiceJet, issued advisories alerting passengers to potential delays and urging them to check their flight status before heading to the airport. These airlines also mobilized staff to assist passengers and minimize inconvenience. IndiGo reported that its flight operations were affected, and its shares subsequently declined by 1.5%.
The technical snag also impacted international airlines, with an ITA Airways flight to Rome delayed by nearly two hours and a Virgin Atlantic flight to London experiencing a delay of over an hour.
The AAI has not yet released details on the cause of the malfunction, but CNN NEWS 18 reported that authorities are investigating the possibility of computer malware being involved. This incident follows a recent ransomware attack that disrupted several major European airports in September, raising concerns about cybersecurity vulnerabilities within air traffic control systems.
Delhi Airport, which handled approximately 78 million passengers in 2024, making it the ninth busiest globally, typically manages 60-70 aircraft movements per hour. The current disruption has led to congestion at boarding gates as airlines hold departures and incoming flights await clearance.
Passengers are advised to stay in contact with their respective airlines for the latest updates and to allow for extra travel time due to the ongoing delays. The airport and সংশ্লিষ্ট authorities are working to resolve the issue and restore normal operations as soon as possible.
