Flight operations at Mumbai and Delhi airports affected by technical glitch; kites stranded

Flight operations at several airports, including Delhi and Mumbai, were hit on Thursday morning after a nearly two-hour technical glitch in Navitaire, a system used by airlines for bookings and check-ins, affected hundreds of passengers.

The glitch occurred at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport around 6:45 am. During the disruption, airlines were forced to manually manage passenger data, leading to long queues during the early morning rush hour.

Several airlines, including IndiGo, Akasa Air and Air India Express, were affected. Sources told India Today TV that IndiGo restored its systems within about 25 minutes. The Navitaire system was fully restored after almost two hours by 8.25 am, sources said.

A similar situation occurred at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, where several passengers reported delays and crowding at check-in counters due to the Navitaire outage.

Navitaire provides critical aviation technology for reservations, check-in and boarding. If the system fails, airlines are unable to process passengers efficiently, often leading to delays and congestion.

The incident revived memories of a major disruption in November last year, when a technical glitch in the air traffic control system at Delhi airport delayed more than 800 flights.

Delhi Airport, India’s busiest airport, handles more than 1,500 flight movements every day, while Mumbai Airport handles around 1,000.

– Ends