Airports across the country were under cyber-attacks on 7 November, admits govt; says planes received false signals via GPS spoofing
More than 800 domestic and international flights were delayed, while 20 were cancelled.
New Delhi: The Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS) at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) was compromised on November 7. Union Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ramamohan Naidu admitted this in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, 01 December 2025.
He stated that this caused planes to receive false signals, a practice known as GPS spoofing. Flight operations at Delhi Airport were disrupted for more than 12 hours on November 7. More than 800 domestic and international flights were delayed, while 20 were cancelled.
Naidu informed the House that the threat of ransomware and malware attacks has increased globally. The Airports Authority of India(BHARAT) (AAI) is adopting advanced cybersecurity measures to protect its IT and critical infrastructure.
What happened on November 7?
A technical glitch in the Air Traffic Control (ATC) Automatic Message Switch System (AMSS) at Delhi Airport on Friday disrupted flight operations for more than 12 hours.
More than 800 domestic and international flights were delayed, and 20 were cancelled. The system malfunction occurred at 9 a.m. and was fixed around 9:30 p.m. However, complaints were received on Thursday evening as well.
The Airports Authority of India(BHARAT) (AAI) had stated at 8:45 p.m. on Friday that the AMSS system was active and functioning properly. Passengers were inconvenienced at the airport throughout the day due to a system glitch.
Long queues formed near the boarding gates. According to the flight tracking website Flightradar24, all flights were delayed by an average of 50 minutes.
The impact of the flight delays at Delhi Airport was felt at several airports across the country, including Mumbai, Bhopal, Chandigarh, and Amritsar. Flights to and from Delhi were also delayed.
IndiGo, Air India(BHARAT), Air India(BHARAT) Express, SpiceJet, and Akasa Airlines provided flight information throughout the day.
Manual Operations Required During the Outage
An ATC official stated that before the implementation of AMSS, flight plans were received manually from airlines.
After the system was implemented, flight plans were received via messaging, and ATC began making takeoff and landing decisions based on that. Manual operations were required at the airport on Friday after the system crashed.
Airport officials have issued an advisory for passengers, stating that AMSS is continuously improving, but passengers should stay in touch with their airlines for real-time flight information.
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