Hundreds of Flights Delayed at Delhi Airport Due to Air Traffic System Failure
A failure in the automatic messaging system for air traffic control caused delays for hundreds of flights at Delhi Airport, India, one of the busiest in the world. The incident began on Thursday afternoon and affected both domestic and international flights, creating a cascading effect at other airports across the country.
According to the Airport Authority of India (AAI), the problem originated in the Automatic Message Switching System, used to generate flight plans. The failure forced controllers to prepare the plans manually, leading to significant delays.
Operational and Financial Impact on Airlines
Delays averaged one hour per flight, according to data from Flightradar24, with the estimated number of affected departures reaching 25 on Thursday and over 175 on Friday. Ground congestion also began to impact arrivals, increasing wait times.
Airlines IndiGo, SpiceJet, and the Air India group issued warnings about the delays, which was reflected in the stock market: IndiGo closed with a 2% drop and SpiceJet lost 1% on Friday. The companies now face higher operational costs for passenger assistance and potential refunds, with effects that could extend into Saturday.
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Contingency Measures and Possible Causes
Faced with the situation, some airlines, such as Air India Express, have assigned their own staff to air traffic control offices to manually prepare flight plans. The AAI communicated on social media platform X that its technical teams are working to restore the system as soon as possible, although it has not offered details on the origin of the failure.
A source cited by CNN NEWS 18 indicated that the possibility of a malware attack being behind the incident is under investigation. Reuters was unable to independently verify this information.
This event occurs shortly after a ransomware attack affected several European airports in September, disrupting automated check-in systems and flight operations.
International Impact and Airport Context
Among the affected international flights were an ITA Airways service bound for Rome, which suffered a delay of nearly two hours, and a Virgin Atlantic flight to London, delayed by over an hour. Two sources from the aviation sector confirmed that the AAI has not yet informed airlines when the problem will be resolved.
Delhi airport, operated predominantly by GMR Airports with air traffic control managed by the AAI, handled nearly 78 million passengers in 2024, ranking as the ninth busiest in the world according to Airports Council International. Its operational capacity reaches between 60 and 70 aircraft movements per hour.
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