Civil Aviation Minister Rammohan Naidu on Friday night reviewed the on-ground situation at the Air Navigation Services (ANS) Centre near Delhi Airport following a major technical glitch in the Air Traffic Control (ATC) messaging system that disrupted flight operations earlier this week.
Glitch Disrupts Flights at Delhi Airport
The technical issue began on the afternoon of November 6 and continued into November 7, affecting the messaging system used by ATC to manage aircraft movements. The disruption led to delays and cancellations of 46 flights at Delhi Airport, one of the busiest aviation hubs in the country.
During the outage, ATC staff operated flight movements manually, ensuring safety and minimising inconvenience to passengers.
Minister Conducts Late-Night Review
Minister Rammohan Naidu, accompanied by Civil Aviation Secretary Samir Kumar Sinha, AAI Chairman Vipin Kumar, and other senior officials, visited the Delhi ANS Centre to assess the situation.
During the visit, the Minister directed the Chairman and Managing Director of Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) to deploy additional manpower to expedite restoration efforts.
He also instructed that additional ATC personnel be deployed at Delhi Airport to strengthen manual operations and minimise passenger inconvenience during the downtime.
System Restored by November 8
Following continuous efforts from the technical teams and round-the-clock monitoring by the Ministry, the ATC system was fully restored to automatic mode by the afternoon of November 8.
Officials confirmed that no flight cancellations were reported on Saturday.
Probe Ordered, Upgrades Planned
Rammohan Naidu has directed that a detailed root-cause analysis be undertaken to identify the reason for the malfunction and ensure that such incidents do not recur.
He also instructed officials to plan system upgrades, including additional or fallback servers, to strengthen ATC operations and enhance the reliability of air traffic management across India's airports.
Restoration Efforts by AAI, ANS and ECIL
From the onset of the issue, teams from the Airports Authority of India (AAI), Air Navigation Services (ANS), and the Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) worked round the clock to identify and rectify the fault.
ECIL deployed additional engineers to assist in the restoration, while AAI provided extra manpower to support manual operations. Senior officials monitored the situation continuously to prevent further disruptions.
