Server experienced complex system issue that led to disruption to Air India flights, says official

Hours after operations of several Air India flights were affected worldwide following the crash of its internal server SITA, senior manager Julius Baumann, on Saturday said that SITA experienced a complex system issue during server maintenance that led to the disruption to flights. 

He added that a full investigation is being undertaken to understand the root cause and prevent a recurrence, adding that services have been fully restored at all airports.

"SITA experienced a complex system issue during server maintenance today which resulted in operational disruption to Air India flights. We've now fully restored services at all airports where Air India was affected. We are undertaking a full investigation to understand the root cause and prevent a recurrence. We deeply regret the inconvenience this has caused to the airline and their customers owing to this disruption. Only Air India flights were affected by the glitch," Air India tweeted quoting Julius Baumann, SITA's senior manager, corporate communications.

Meanwhile, news agency PTI reported quoting the airline that a total of 155 flights will be delayed for an average duration of two hours till 8.30 pm. "155 flights, with an average duration of two hours, are expected to be delayed till 2030 hours," PTI reported Air India spokesperson said.

Thousands of passengers were stranded in Delhi, Mumbai and other airports worldwide. The internal server has now been restored, however, flight operations will witness a delay throughout the day, said the airlines. 

The internal server has now been restored, however, flight operations will witness a delay throughout the day, said the airlines. 

"Between 3:30 to 4:30 am today, passenger services system of Air India that is run by SITA was taken for maintenance after that it remained down till 8:45 am, it has just come back. System restored. During the day we will see consequential delays," Chairman and Managing Director of Air India Ashwani Lohani told news agency ANI. 

The airline's internal server SITA went down at around 3:30 am, following which the airlines failed to issue boarding passes.

Several commuters took Twitter to complain about the delayed flights and chaos at the airports.

Filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri wrote, "Air India server crashed since 3.30AM. All flights cancelled. Thousands of passengers stranded at the airport. Nobody knows what is happening. Don’t go to the airport without confirming. I am also going back after spending a couple of hours."

Air India's software solution is managed by SITA, global airlines IT services major, which provides its check-in, boarding and baggage tracking technology.

In Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, nearly 50 flights take-off by noon daily. Operations of all these flights have been affected due to the technical glitch. 

On June 23, 2018, Air India faced a similar technical glitch in the check-in software leading to a delay of 25 flights across India.