Mumbai: A day after a major technical failure in the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS) at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) crippled air traffic nationwide, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) in Mumbai continued to experience severe operational disruptions on Saturday.
While the Airports Authority of India (AAI) confirmed that the AMSS is now functional, passengers in Mumbai endured significant delays and cancellations throughout the day due to the lingering network impact.
Residual network effects delay operations
The AMSS glitch, which began on Thursday and peaked on Friday, forced air traffic controllers to process flight plans manually, causing a massive backlog across the country. Mumbai’s congested airspace was among the hardest hit.
Although the core system in Delhi was restored late Friday, airlines and airport authorities in Mumbai struggled with residual disruptions such as delayed aircraft rotations, stranded crew, and congested flight schedules.
Flight operations at CSMIA recorded an average delay of 35 minutes on Saturday.
“The problem has been solved but it will take some more time for operations to become completely normal,” an official with Mumbai ATC told The Free Press Journal.
Fresh technical hurdles hit Air India’s London flight
The chaos was compounded by fresh technical setbacks. Air India’s flight AI129, scheduled to depart from Mumbai to London Heathrow at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, was delayed by nearly seven hours due to an internal technical snag and crew duty time limitations.
Passengers were boarded and made to wait for over an hour before being deboarded for safety checks. The aircraft finally took off at 2:25 p.m.
“The flight returned to the bay shortly after pushback due to a suspected technical issue. Passengers were disembarked, and the aircraft is undergoing checks. Meanwhile, the crew came under the mandatory Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) protocol, preventing them from operating the flight immediately,” said an Air India spokesperson.
Normalcy expected to return gradually
While operations have begun stabilizing, airport officials expect it will take another 24–48 hours for flight schedules to fully normalize, especially given the cascading effect across multiple routes.
The incident has once again raised concerns about system redundancies and operational resilience in India’s aviation network.
