Mumbai Airport Outage Disrupts Hundreds of Flights After IT Failure

A severe network outage paralyzed critical computer systems at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) in Mumbai, India, triggering massive delays and disrupting hundreds of flights. The technical failure, which began on Tuesday at 7:00 PM and lasted for over an hour, knocked out automated passenger processing systems, including electronic boarding gates, check-in kiosks, and DigiYatra biometric identification services.

Following the system collapse, airport personnel and security forces immediately switched to manual emergency protocols to keep passenger traffic moving, resulting in a drastic slowdown across the entire security check and boarding chain. Officers from India's Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) were forced to manually verify and clear every passenger, creating massive queues and frustration throughout the terminal as security personnel struggled to manage the heavy congestion.

According to reports by the Press Trust of India (PTI), the technological glitch disrupted no more and no less than 327 flights across the airport. Data analysis from Flightradar24 published in the Hindustan Times indicated that out of 44 scheduled passenger departures between 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM, 18 flights were delayed by at least an hour, three were completely canceled, and two flights remained grounded on the tarmac as late as 10:37 PM. Major carriers including IndiGo and Air India experienced heavy schedule disruptions.

Airport operator MIAL, controlled by Adani Enterprises, acknowledged the temporary network glitch but downplayed its severity in an official statement, claiming that manual measures maintained essential services. However, on-the-ground reports and widespread flight delays painted a starkly different picture, underscoring the extreme vulnerability of modern aviation hubs to digital system failures during peak operational hours.