Manual check-ins, flight delays: Chaos reigns supreme at Indian airports

Nearly 1,100 flights delayed, over 100 cancelled across Delhi, Mumbai, B'luru

- DEEPAK PATEL

A global outage of Microsoft's apps and services on Friday severely affected the operations of Indian carriers, prompting manual check-ins at airports and resulting in hundreds of flight delays and cancellations across the country. IndiGo, India's largest carrier, said it had to cancel at least 192 flights on Friday and Saturday.

The ground staff at checkin counters across Indian airports resorted to issuing handwritten boarding passes to passengers due to this issue. The digital display boards at airports went blank, prompting staff to prepare and update flight information manually on whiteboards to keep travelers informed, according to airline officials. By Friday evening, the systems had largely come back online, but the aftereffects persisted.

According to flightradar24, 485 flights (331 departures and 154 arrivals) faced delays at the Delhi International Airport. India's busiest airport, which handles about 1,260 daily scheduled flights, cancelled at least 46 departures. Delhi International Airport Limited, which manages the airport, said it is working with all "stakeholders" to minimise inconvenience to flyers.