Flight operations at Delhi Airport ‘gradually improving’ hours after ATC hit by technical snag

Over 800 flights were delayed, and hundreds of passengers were left stranded at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), one of India’s busiest, on Friday due to a significant technical glitch in the air traffic control system.

The Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS), a crucial Air Traffic Control (ATC) network that feeds data into the Auto Track System (ATS), which creates flight plans, broke down, causing the disruption that started late on Thursday.

Later, on Friday, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said that automated operations may experience minor delays due to backlogs, but things will soon return to normal.

Update on Technical Fault at IGI Airport, New Delhi

NEW DELHI, November 7, 2025 – AAI at Indira Gandhi International Airport addressed a technical issue in the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS), which caused delays in processing flight plan messages. The issue was…

— Airports Authority of India (@AAI_Official) November 7, 2025

In the latest advisory on November 8, Delhi Airport said that the flight operations are ‘gradually improving’.

Flight tracking website Flightradar 24 reported that 129 flights (53 arrivals and 76 departures) experienced delays on Saturday, compared to almost 800 on Friday.

In its statement this morning, the Delhi Airport said, “The technical issue which affected the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS), that supports the Air Traffic Control flight planning process, is gradually improving. Airline operations at Delhi Airport are returning to normal, and all concerned authorities are working diligently to minimise any inconvenience caused. Passengers are advised to stay in touch with their airlines for the latest flight update.”

Passenger Advisory issued at 06:36 Hours#DelhiAirport #PassengerAdvisory #DELAdvisory pic.twitter.com/7AB6ewJoA7

— Delhi Airport (@DelhiAirport) November 8, 2025

Meanwhile, IndiGo Airlines has also issued an advisory saying the flight operations are ‘progressively’ being restored at the airport.

“We are pleased to share that the temporary AMSS system outage affecting Air Traffic Control has now been resolved, and normal operations are being progressively restored at Delhi Airport and other impacted airports in the northern region,” it said.

#6ETravelAdvisory

We are pleased to share that the temporary AMSS system outage affecting Air Traffic Control has now been resolved, and normal operations are being progressively restored at Delhi Airport and other impacted airports in the northern region.

We appreciate the…

— IndiGo (@IndiGo6E) November 7, 2025

Earlier on Thursday, Delhi Airport witnessed more than 500 flight delays, which increased to over 800 flights by Friday. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) stated that while technical failures are uncommon, flight safety was “never compromised.”

“There was no impact on aircraft already in the air. The disruption was purely related to the pre-departure message flow and flight plan processing,” an official was quoted as saying by NDTV.

The technical issue also had an impact on several airports, including Hyderabad, where multiple aircraft were delayed due to poor ATC operations, NDTV reported.