Delhi Airport Outage: What Is AMSS and How ATC Uses It to Manage Flight Operations

New Delhi: A major technical glitch in the AMSS systems — Automatic Message Switching System — at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport on Friday impacted operations of over 800 flights. The outage left thousands of passengers stranded, anxious, and waiting for hours to travel to their destinations.The issue was first detected on Thursday evening by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), and a review meeting was immediately conducted by the Civil Aviation Secretary, along with the AAI Chairman, AAI Member ANS, and other officials. Necessary directions were given to address the issue, as per the post.AAI, in a post on X at 10:08 am today, said flight operations at the Delhi airport were facing delays due to a technical issue in the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS),

which supports air traffic control data.The state-owned AAI, which provides air traffic control and navigation services, said technical teams are working to restore the system at the earliest.Sources said the air traffic control system had faced issues intermittently over the last two days, and the technical glitch began to significantly impact operations from around 5:45 am.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRj6D8ngIUw

Information available on flight tracking website Flightradar24.com showed that over 800 flights were delayed at the airport, with the average delay for departing flights around 50 minutes. The count includes both arrivals and departures.However, after hours of struggle and dedicated efforts by all involved officials and authorities, the technical glitch with the AMSS was rectified, and normal services are expected to resume soon, barring some minor delays due to backlog clearance. What Is AMSS and Why Is It Crucial for Flight Operations? AMSS stands for Automatic Message Switching System. It is a key part of Air Traffic Control (ATC) and is used to automatically send flight plan messages between airports and controllers. In simple terms, AMSS is like a central messaging hub that helps ATC manage flight operations. The system sends and receives flight plans, including the detailed routes a particular aircraft will follow. ATC uses these messages to coordinate flight operations and ensure the safety of aircraft both in the air and on the ground.

What Happens When AMSS Fails?

• When AMSS fails, Air Traffic Controllers don’t receive flight plans instantly, leading to delays and cancellations.
• Without AMSS, flight plans have to be processed manually, which slows down the entire flight operation process
• Between the evening of November 6 and the night of November 7, when Delhi IGI Airport’s AMSS was hit by a technical glitch, ATC struggled to manage operations, resulting in delays to over 800 flights.