Travel chaos as thousands of passengers stranded at after major glitch | World | News

The system error led controllers in the tower to manually process the plans – an incredibly time-consuming task especially as IGIA is India’s busiest airport handling more than 1,500 aircraft movements a day.

A senior official at the Airports Authority of India (AAI) added: “This kind of manual workaround is rare and extremely inefficient for an airport of this scale.”

According to Flightradar24, this morning, the average flight was delayed by 45 to 50 minutes, with the outage also affecting regional airports in Lucknow, Jaipur, Chandigarh, and Amritsar.

With the manual records now in operation, officials have warned that even though the computer system is back online, the backlog will still cause significant delays to passengers.

Delhi International Airport Ltd. (DIAL) confirmed the technical issue and said teams were working closely with AAI to restore full functionality. 

“We’re coordinating with all stakeholders to stabilise operations and minimise passenger inconvenience,” a DIAL spokesperson said.

Airlines across the country also warned passengers to expect delays and plan journeys ahead. Air India wrote: “We understand the frustration this has caused and are doing everything possible to support our customers during this unexpected disruption.”

Another Indian airline, SpiceJet, added: “We’re monitoring the situation closely and adjusting schedules as needed to ensure safety and efficiency.”

By midday, AAI officials reported that while operations remained slower than usual, the system had stabilised, a senior AAI engineer added: “Restoration work is ongoing, and we expect gradual improvement through the afternoon.”