‘Can’t afford airport food': Passengers left hungry and angry after Delhi glitch, over 800 flight delays

A major technical glitch at Delhi’s IGI Airport caused over 800 flight delays, stranding passengers and leading to chaos, with some delays exceeding 12 hours.

A crippling technical glitch in the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport on Friday catapulted to complete chaos as over 800 flights faced delays — some by over 12 hours — usurping the plans of thousands of travellers. By afternoon, departure of 313 flights and arrival of 118 flights was impeded by a glitch that authorities call “uncommon… never happened before.”

Passengers wait outside the departure terminal at IGI on Friday. (Sanjeev Verma/HT Photo)

To be sure, IGI airport, one of India’s busiest, manages over 1,500 flight movements each day.

Passengers, frustrated with a slew of malfunctions to have ailed IGI airport in the last few months, were left fuming once again – with many wondering if this is how an international airport located in the Capital of a country should function. The issue was finally resolved late evening.

At 8 am, 55-year-old Mahinder Pal reached the airport from his residence in Amritsar — 470 km away — with his son and his three friends who are moving to Dubai for work.

“They are starting a new job. The flight was supposed to take off at 4 pm, but then we got to know from our agent that it had been delayed. Since we didn’t know how long the delay was initially, we reached the airport anyway so that my son wouldn’t miss the flight. We have now been informed that his flight will only take off at 10 am tomorrow,” said Pal – exhausted, hungry, and furious. Seated outside the airport, he was unsure of what to do next or how his son will explain to his new work place why he will be late on day one.

Ranvir Singh, 34, accompanied Pal from Amritsar to drop off a cousin who too is headed to Dubai for work. “We are supposed to take the train back to Amritsar today but now we can’t… We can’t leave the children here waiting all alone. We will have to spend more money here to stay the night. The food at the airport is so expensive, we can’t afford it. So, we have been starving since 8 am,” said Singh.

Chaotic scenes unfolded at the IGI airport on Friday morning with clueless passengers showing up only to be informed about inordinate delays leading to serpentine queues inside and outside the airport. Tired families desperately refreshed websites on their phones, while others stared at the information board — Ranchi, DELAYED; Pune, DELAYED; Bhopal, DELAYED; Jeddah, DELAYED; Newark, DELAYED; Kuwait, DELAYED. It was only by afternoon — by which time airlines had swung into action with text messages and emails to passengers about delays — that things eased up outside the airport.

For some it meant shorter holidays, missed connections, delay in joining work, while for others like 46-year-old engineer Somnath Chatterjee, it meant heartbreak. He was headed to Kolkata to attend an old friend’s funeral. “My flight is delayed by hours, I won’t make it on time for my friend’s last rites. This is just cruel and unacceptable. I tried to book another flight but either tickets are not unavailable or those flights are also facing delays. There is just too much chaos here,” he lamented.

Meanwhile, officials said a malfunction in the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS), which feeds crucial flight plan data to the Auto Track System (ATS) led to the disruption. “Flight operations at Delhi Airport are experiencing delays due to a technical issue in the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS), which supports Air Traffic Control data. Controllers are processing flight plans manually, leading to some delays. Technical teams are working to restore the system at the earliest. We appreciate the understanding and cooperation of all passengers and stakeholders,” a statement from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said.

An official told HT that the issue began on Thursday afternoon around 3 pm. “Since the ATCOs (air traffic controllers) have not received flight plans automatically on their screens, controllers are now preparing flight plans manually using available data, a process that is slowing down operations and contributing to congestion at the airport,” said the official, while another official aware of the matter said “such a glitch is uncommon and has not happened earlier.”

In another corner of the airport on Friday afternoon, 25-year-old Jal Boudha, a student from Rajasthan, paced from one end to another, as he impatiently refreshed the website on his phone to see if there’s an update about the arrival status of an Air India flight from Saudi Arabia. “I am here to pick up a friend who was supposed to land at 1.35 pm but that flight has still not landed. No one seems to know when it will reach. We were supposed to head back to our hometown via a train today but now we will miss that train too. Who will foot these losses?” he asked.

Many passengers took to social media apps such as X and Facebook to express their frustration over the delays, and the early morning chaos at the airport. One X user lamented, “It is a nightmare to be sitting in an aircraft for 2 hours due to massive signal failure. 90 flights are queued up and there is no clarity when we will take off. There could be failures but why can’t you inform passengers before boarding,” while actor-musician Daniel Weber tweeted, “Hello @DelhiAirport how about you allow flights to get to the parking gate? We are sitting on the runway for 30 min with no gate. Seems like a basic thing you can manage!”

The situation remained equally dire and frustrating in the evening with no solution in place. An X user wrote, “The situation at Delhi Airport is extremely chaotic — most flights are either delayed, postponed, or cancelled. The management seems completely unprepared to handle the situation. Very poor coordination and communication with passengers @DelhiAirport @DGCAIndia”

Meanwhile the IT ministry ruled out the possibility of a cyber attack behind the massive disruption. An official, who asked not to be named, told HT, “There is supposed to be an automatic update of flight plans that stopped functioning. It is not a cyber attack.”

In the afternoon, Gautam Kocher, 55, awaited his daughter’s arrival with a fat bouquet of roses in his hand. “The flight is delayed by an hour as of now. I don’t mind waiting. I heard some flights are delayed by six-eight hours, so I am lucky that this is a short delay… But there is no space to sit here. The airport should make adequate arrangements for people to sit on such days,” he said.

Another passenger, who spoke to HT but asked not to be named, said that the cancellation of the flight he was supposed to take has led to him cutting short his holiday to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, followed by Seoul in South Korea. “This has ruined all my plans. I was supposed to leave for Chennai from here. I have been waiting for four hours and now they have said the flight is cancelled. I haven’t been able to book another flight. I had a holiday planned but if I don’t make it to Chennai on time, I will have to skip going to Kuala Lumpur, and head straight to Seoul only,” he said.

For Saajid Naseem, 36, his Delhi holiday – otherwise full of memories of a lifetime – has ended on an anxious note. “This will lead to problems at work. I work in a firm in Africa and this delay means I will miss my connecting flight from Doha,” said Naseem.