Hundreds of Flights Delayed After Major Air Traffic Control System Failure at Indira Gandhi International Airport

NEW DELHI: Air traffic operations across India faced severe disruption on Friday after a major technical malfunction hit the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, causing widespread flight delays and cancellations.

According to Indian media, citing data from flight-tracking platforms, nearly 95% of departing flights experienced an average delay of 55 minutes, while 69% of arriving flights were also delayed. More than 800 flights were affected nationwide, and at least 20 flights were cancelled due to the system failure.

In a statement, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) confirmed that a technical fault occurred in the automated messaging system that supports ATC operations. As a result, air traffic controllers were forced to process flight plans manually, significantly slowing operations.

The disruption at India’s busiest airport also triggered a cascading effect across other major airports in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Chennai, causing inconvenience to thousands of passengers.

AAI officials said engineers were working to restore full functionality and that contingency measures were being implemented to stabilize flight operations.