Global Software Failure Disrupts Flight Operations Across India

Navitaire outage exposes how a few minutes of tech failure can ripple through airports worldwide

A brief but significant software outage early Thursday morning disrupted flight operations across India, highlighting how deeply modern aviation depends on technology.

The issue stemmed from Navitaire, a global airline software platform used for bookings, reservations, and airport check-ins. The system, owned by Amadeus, supports several low-cost and hybrid airlines worldwide. When it went down between 6:45 am and 7:28 am and again briefly after 8:10 am airlines including IndiGo, Air India Express, Akasa Air, and SpiceJet faced delays in processing passengers.

At Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport and other major hubs, check-in counters slowed, boarding systems stalled, and long queues quickly formed during the busy morning rush. The disruption also affected parts of Asia-Pacific and Europe, underscoring the global nature of the outage.

An airport official at IGIA confirmed the situation was temporary. “There was a temporary slowdown in passenger processing due to a global system issue. The situation was however brought under control and operations are normalizing,” the official said.

Airlines switched to manual backup procedures to keep flights moving, and no cancellations were immediately reported. However, the timing of the outage coinciding with increased VIP air movements for the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, added to operational pressure.

While the system was restored within hours, the incident served as a reminder: in today’s aviation ecosystem, even a short software failure can bring airport operations to a near standstill.