New Delhi: Flight operations were disrupted on Thursday morning following a brief outage of Navitaire software — a system used by airlines worldwide for bookings and check-ins— affecting multiple carriers across the country as well as parts of the Asia-Pacific and Europe, officials said.
“Due to the system outage, IndiGo, Air India Express, Akasa Air and SpiceJet airlines were impacted between 6.45am and 7.28am, and again intermittently from 8.10am to 8.25am, leading to temporary delays in check-in and boarding processes at several airports including Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA),” an official aware of the matter said, requesting anonymity.
Navitaire, a subsidiary of Amadeus, provides reservation, inventory and departure control systems primarily to low-cost and hybrid carriers worldwide.
According to officials, the outage affected passenger processing systems, including airport check-in counters and boarding systems, resulting in long queues during the morning peak travel period.
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IGIA was among the airports that experienced congestion, coinciding with heightened activity due to the arrival of several high-profile delegates for the ongoing AI Impact Summit in the national capital.
“Multiple VIP movements added to operational pressure at terminals already managing early morning departures. A NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) was also in place due to the VIP movements adding to the congestion,” a second official said, also declining to be named.
There were not statements by Navitaire and the airlines.
Officials said operations continued manually during the disruption, with airlines switching to backup procedures to minimise delays.
“There was a temporary slowdown in passenger processing due to a global system issue. The situation was however brought under control and operations are normalising,” an IGIA official said. Some flights reported minor departure delays. “There were no immediate (flight) cancellations due to the outage,” the official added.
To be sure, a Notice to Air Mission (NOTAM) is also in place in and around Delhi. It imposes temporary flight restrictions around Delhi due to the AI Summit 2026. As per the NOTAM, seen by HT, no flights will be permitted to take off or land at IGIA or subsidiary airfields within a 300km radius during specified time windows, except scheduled commercial services, summit-related VIP flights cleared in advance, and designated defence and emergency operations.