Mumbai: Flight operations at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) were significantly disrupted as the direct result of a major technical failure in the air traffic control (ATC) system over 1,400km away in Delhi. The technical issue caused delays to hundreds of domestic and international flights and was not resolved until the report was published late evening.
ATC Glitch Triggers Nationwide Air Delays
The disruption has caused cascading delays across India's air travel network, with Mumbai, a critical aviation hub, bearing the brunt of the ripple effect. The core of the problem lies with a failure in the ATC’s automatic message switching system (AMSS), the vital software that automatically processes and transmits flight plan data to air traffic controllers. With the AMSS system down, controllers have been forced to manually process every single departure and arrival, drastically slowing the rate of aircraft movements.
Controllers are processing flight plans manually, leading to some delays. Technical teams are working to restore the system at the earliest,” read a statement from Airports Authority of India (AAI).
While the technical glitch delayed hundreds of flights at IGI, it also affected flight operations at Mumbai, Lucknow, Jaipur, Varanasi and other airports. At CSMIA, hundreds of domestic flights faced delays since Friday morning as the issue also affected international flights starting from evening. The average delays in take-off went as high as 40 minutes, causing long queues of aircraft waiting to receive take-off permissions from the airport.
An official from Mumbai ATC told The Free Press Journal, “Operators are unable to submit their flight plan as the online flight planning system was not working. The operations from Mumbai ATC are carried out in line with Delhi and therefore the issue has affected operations here as well.”
Passengers Stranded Amid Long Flight Delays
The issue affected thousands of travellers who were stranded at the airport waiting for their flight to depart. A passenger flying from CSMIA to Indore on an IndiGo flight, scheduled at 4.50pm, said that their flight took-off after a delay of around 1.5hr and landed in Indore at 7.15pm.
Airlines serving Mumbai, including IndiGo, Air India, Akasa Air and SpiceJet, issued advisories warning passengers of extended wait times both in the terminal and onboard aircraft.
“While the authorities work to restore full system functionality, our priority is to support passengers with timely updates and assistance across all airport touchpoints. Our teams remain available and are doing their utmost to ensure that journeys remain as smooth as possible,” said an IndiGo spokesperson.
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