Mumbai: A network outage at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on Tuesday evening, October 27 forced airlines to shift check-in to manual processing, disrupting passenger handling in the departure halls, The CSR Journal and India.com reported.

Source: The CSR Journal

The technical problem reportedly began around 7:05 pm and persisted for about 50 minutes. Approximately 11 Air India flights and three IndiGo flights were impacted in check-in, according to the reports. Gate changes, crew delays and slow boarding-scanner operations were also observed during the period, sources indicated.

Airport teams promptly shifted to manual processing under established protocols so that essential operations continued and passenger inconvenience was minimised, the reports said. Check-in did not come to a complete standstill, but passengers faced delays, queues and uncertainty in the affected areas.

The airport operator, CSMIA, stated that the temporary network disruption did not affect overall airport or flight operations, and confirmed that manual processing was implemented to minimise passenger inconvenience. A spokesperson reiterated that there had been no significant impact on flight operations due to the disruption.

Airlines, however, pointed to a wider difficult evening: carriers said their flights were already facing delays because of air traffic control (ATC) congestion before the network issue, and the glitch added to those operational challenges and to passengers' waiting times.

Livemint reported that while the airport operator said flight operations remained unaffected, Flightradar24 data showed 327 flights delayed by around 9:30 pm, with average departure delays of 50 minutes. Passengers were advised to stay informed about their flight status and to allow ample time at the airport while airport and airline staff worked to restore normalcy.

Source: Livemint via BizToc