Mumbai airport network failure delays 18 flights by an hour or more, 3 cancelled

Airlines said their flights were already delayed by congestion in air traffic control before the network failed, and the system problem added to those delays.

A network failure at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) on Tuesday evening forced the airport and airlines to process passengers by hand at one of the busiest times of the day, as nearly half the flights due out between 7pm and 9pm left an hour or more late, with some by over two hours.

Passengers waiting near the e gates when it was not operational. CISF allowed each passenger manually. (HT File Photo)

Of the 44 passenger flights scheduled to leave in that window, 18 took off an hour or more late and three were cancelled, according to Flightradar24 data analysed by HT. Two more were still on the ground at 10.37pm, nearly two hours after their scheduled departure.

Adani Enterprises denies impact on flight operations

The problem began at around 7.05pm, and all processes were switched to manual mode as laid down in protocol, airport officials said. Check-in counters kept working, though slowly, and both IndiGo and Air India flights were affected.

In a statement, the Adani Enterprises-controlled CSMIA spokesperson said: “Mumbai Airport experienced a temporary network disruption on Tuesday evening, and teams implemented manual processing measures to minimise inconvenience to passengers and maintain continuity of essential airport operations. So far there has been no impact on airport and flight operations due to this.”

Airport’s own officials contradicted that account. Speaking on condition of anonymity, they acknowledged that the system was down for about an hour.

The recovery was patchy. At 9.36pm, two and a half hours after the failure began, an official said the system was still fluctuating, though it was moving towards normal.

The automated e-gates at the terminal entrance stopped working, and personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which guards the airport, had to clear passengers one at a time, people aware of the matter said. A photograph obtained by HT shows passengers waiting near the e-gates while they were out of service. A senior CISF officer said personnel were also trying to pacify angry passengers frustrated by the slow processes.

An airline official, who asked not to be named, said there had been no cancellations or diversions, and flights were delayed by about 40 minutes to an hour on average because check-in and gate procedures were carried out by hand. The disruption had some cascading effect on flights even after the system was restored, the official said.