A countrywide disruption in airline check-in systems at major airports in the country disrupted flight operations Wednesday, creating chaotic scenes particularly at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA). The disruption was attributed to a system outage impacting IT services reliant on third-party technology.
A video from Wednesday morning showed a large, agitated group of travellers surrounding an airline helpdesk at the Hyderabad airport, demanding clarity on their flight status. The passengers were seen raising their voices and having heated exchanges with visibly overwhelmed counter staff.
System Outage Impacts Major Airlines
According to the PTI news agency, a system outage, reportedly linked to a global Microsoft Windows service disruption, impacted IT services and check-in systems at several airports across the country. A message at Varanasi airport told passengers, “Microsoft Windows reports major service outages globally. IT services/check-in systems at airports are impacted”.
At least four major carriers were reportedly affected by the glitch: IndiGo, SpiceJet, Akasa Air, and Air India Express. There were no immediate comments or acknowledgements from Microsoft or the affected airlines regarding the cause of the disruption.
DIAL further acknowledged the efforts being taken to put the situation under control, stating in a post on X: “Our on-ground teams are working diligently with all stakeholders to ensure a seamless and efficient passenger experience.”
Recurring Technical Issues In Aviation
Wednesday’s glitch is the latest technological failure to hit flight operations across India’s busy aviation sector.
Third-Party System Problem (=Previous Incident): A similar disruption to the check-in system had been ascribed to a ‘third-party system’ the previous night. Air India reported on Tuesday night that the matter was “fully resolved” and all operations were back to normal. Persistent vulnerability is suggested by Wednesday morning chaos.
Delhi AMSS Glitch (Last Month): The Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi saw a massive disruption last month as over 400 domestic and international flights were delayed. The reason was a technical glitch in the Automatic Message Switching System.
The failure needed air traffic controllers to manually prepare flight plans, a time-consuming process that resulted in prolonged delays across major carriers including Air India and IndiGo. After that incident, the Ministry of Civil Aviation had conducted a review meeting to address the underlying infrastructure issues.
