Passengers left tired, hungry, angry

Understanding the delays at IGI AMSS routes critical flight information between airlines, air traffic controllers (ATC), meteorological services and airports.

- Aaditya Khatwani and Aheli Das

A crippling technical glitch in the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport on Friday catapulted to complete chaos as over 800 flights faced delays -some by over 12 hoursusurping the plans of thousands of travellers. By afternoon, departure of 313 flights and arrival of 118 flights was impeded by a glitch that authorities call "uncommon ... never happened before.

To be sure, IGI airport, one of India's busiest, manages over 1,500 flight movements each day.

Passengers, frustrated with a slew of malfunctions to have ailed IGI airport in the last few months, were left fuming once again - with many wondering if this is how an international airport located in the Capital of a country should function. The issue was finally resolved late evening.

At 8 am, 55-year-old Mahinder Pal reached the airport from his residence in Amritsar - 470 km away - with his son and his three friends who are moving to Dubai for work.

"They are starting a new job. The flight was supposed to take off at 4 pm, but then we got to know from our agent that it had been delayed. Since we didn't know how long the delay was initially, we reached the airport anyway so that my son wouldn't miss the flight. We have now been informed that his flight will only take off at 10 am tomorrow," said Pal -exhausted, hungry, and furious. Seated outside the airport, he was unsure of what to do next or how his son will explain to his new work place why he will be late on day one.

Ranvir Singh, 34, accompanied Pal from Amritsar to drop off a cousin who too is headed to Dubai for work. "We are supposed to take the train back to Amritsar today but now we can't ... We can't leave the children here waiting all alone. We will have to spend more money here to stay the night. The food at the airport is so expensive, we can't afford it. So, we have been starving since 8 am," said Singh.