Airline operations across India, the Asia-Pacific, and parts of Europe faced major disruptions on Thursday, February 19, due to a significant outage of Navitaire, a key global airline reservation and departure control system. The glitch mainly affected low-cost and hybrid carriers, leading to long lines and boarding delays during the busy morning travel period.
System failure triggers peak-hour congestion
The technical issue arose in two waves on Thursday morning, causing passenger processing to come to a standstill.
Impact window: Systems were down between 6:45 AM and 7:28 AM, with a second intermittent outage occurring from 8:10 AM to 8:25 AM.
Impacted carriers: Major Indian airlines, including IndiGo, Air India Express, Akasa Air, and SpiceJet, reported slowdowns. Notably, Air India was unaffected, as it operates on a different system.
Manual overrides: To handle the influx of travelers, airline ground staff had to switch to manual check-in and boarding procedures.
Delhi Airport: A double challenge for IGI
Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) faced increased congestion due to a combination of technical failure and high-profile diplomatic events.
AI Summit 2026: The outage coincided with the arrival of global delegates for the ongoing India AI Impact Summit at Bharat Mandapam.
VIP movements: Heightened security and VIP arrivals added to the operational pressure, straining terminal capacity already hindered by system delays.
Flight restrictions: A NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) was already in effect, imposing temporary flight restrictions within a 300 km radius of Delhi from 7:30 AM to 3:00 PM due to the summit.
What is Navitaire?
Owned by Amadeus, Navitaire is a technology provider focused on the aviation industry. Its main platform, New Skies, is a cloud-based Passenger Service System (PSS) used by budget airlines for managing:
Reservations & ticketing: Integrated e-commerce and booking engines.
GoNow suite: A day-of-departure tool for airport check-in, baggage tracking, and boarding.
Self-service: Supporting kiosks, mobile check-ins, and biometric eGates.
Rising frequency of aviation tech glitches
Thursday’s outage is the latest in a string of technical disruptions affecting Indian aviation.
December 2025: A third-party system glitch caused widespread check-in delays across many Indian hubs.
November 2025: A major failure in the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS) at Delhi airport delayed over 400 flights, exposing weaknesses in the IP-based infrastructure.
Official update: As of 11:30 AM, Navitaire systems have stabilized globally. Airport officials confirmed that while minor departure delays remain, no flight cancellations were reported directly due to the outage.
