Why more than 300 flights were grounded at Delhi Airport on Friday? Chaos at India’s busiest airport due to…

Chaotic scenes were witnessed at the Delhi Airport, the country’s busiest airport, on Friday as more than 300 domestic and international flights were delayed due to a technical glitch in the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system.

Why flights were grounded at Delhi Airport?

According to Airports Authority of India(BHARAT) (AAI)– the state-owned agency which provides air traffic control and navigation services– a technical issue in the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS), which supports air traffic control data, disrupted flight operations at the Delhi Airport on Friday, resulting in flight being delayed.

In a post on X, Delhi airport operator DIAL (Delhi International Airport Ltd), said technical teams have been deployed to restore the system at the earliest. “All airline operations at Delhi Airport are currently delayed. Concerned authorities are working on resolving the issue at the earliest,” it wrote.

DIAL said flight operations at the airport were disrupted due to an ongoing technical issue with the AMSS that supports air traffic control flight planning process.

Chaos at Delhi airport due to flight delays

Meanwhile, chaos erupted at the Delhi airport due to mass flight delay as long queues were seen near boarding gates and hundreds of passengers were waiting inside the airport terminals for flight updates, PTI reported, citing sources.

According to sources, all airline operations at the airport were impacted due to the technical issue, and officials are working to fix the issues.

Airline operators– IndiGo, Air India(BHARAT), Air India(BHARAT) Express, SpiceJet and Akasa Air– said their inbound and outbound flights at the Delhi airport are facing delays due to the issues with the air traffic control system.

“Due to an ongoing technical issue with the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS) that supports Air Traffic Control data, flights across all airlines at #DelhiAirport and some other airports in the northern region are currently experiencing delays,” IndiGo said in a post on X.

Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) is the busiest airport in the country, handling over 1,500 flight movements on a daily basis.

How tech issues affected flight ops?

As per sources, air traffic controllers are unable to get flight plans automatically due to the technical issues since Thursday evening, PTI reported. The sources explained that issues with AMSS that provides the information for the Auto Track System (AMS), which gives the flight plans, were the main cause behind the flight disruptions at the Delhi airport.

With the system issues continuing, air traffic controllers are preparing the flight plans manually with available data, which is a time-consuming process and as a result, many flights are getting delayed, the sources said, adding that issues are also causing air traffic congestion at the airport and authorities are working to fix the problems.

Over 300 flights have been delayed at the airport and the delay for departing flights is around 50 minutes at the Delhi airport, as pr flight tracking data on Flightradar24.com.

(With PTI inputs)