New Delhi: A major technical disruption at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport that delayed more than 800 flights has brought renewed attention to an earlier warning issued by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport. In its August report, the committee urged a complete and time bound upgrade of India’s Air Traffic Control automation systems, describing existing platforms as outdated and increasingly inadequate for the country’s rapidly expanding aviation network.
The committee’s recommendations followed concerns raised by the Air Traffic Controllers’ Guild, which reported serious performance issues in current systems. These included system slowness, delayed data processing, and the absence of modern decision support tools. According to the Guild, such deficiencies affect operational efficiency and can compromise safety at high density airports such as Delhi and Mumbai.
In its report, the committee stressed the need for a structured plan to modernise ATC systems and align them with international standards. Its key recommendations included adopting advanced automation and AI enabled tools to improve accuracy and reduce controller workload, benchmarking new systems against global best practices, conducting a comprehensive technical audit of all existing platforms, and consulting operational experts and serving controllers throughout the development and deployment process.
The panel also noted that India’s rising air traffic has not been matched by corresponding technological upgrades. As flight numbers increase, systems lacking robust conflict detection, predictive analytics, and seamless communication capabilities place growing pressure on controllers. The absence of such tools forces them to rely heavily on manual calculations, raising the likelihood of human error and limiting overall airspace capacity.
Friday’s disruption in Delhi was traced to a technical problem in the Automatic Message Switching System, which supports key data flows within air traffic management. Officials from the Airports Authority of India and specialists from the Electronics Corporation of India Limited were mobilised to resolve the issue. The system fault was first detected on November 6, prompting an immediate review meeting led by senior civil aviation officials.
With Delhi airport managing more than 1,500 flight movements daily, the incident has amplified calls for urgent modernisation to prevent future disruptions and strengthen the safety and efficiency of India’s air traffic infrastructure.
