Navitaire global outage: IndiGo, Akasa, SpiceJet check-ins hit at Delhi Airport; Amadeus systems stabilised | India News
Airline operations in India, Asia-Pacific and parts of Europe faced major disruptions on Thursday (February 19) due to a major outage in Navitaire, a key global airline reservation and departure control system. The disruption mainly affected low-cost and hybrid carriers, leading to long lines and boarding delays during the peak morning travel period.
System failure triggers congestion during peak hours
The technical issue occurred in two waves on Thursday morning, causing passenger transactions to grind to a halt.
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impact window: Systems were down between 6:45 a.m. and 7:28 a.m., and a second intermittent outage occurred between 8:10 a.m. and 8:25 a.m.
Carriers affected: Major Indian airlines including IndiGo, Air India Express, Akasa Air and SpiceJet reported slowdowns. It is noteworthy that Air India was not affected as it operates on a different system.
Manual overrides: To cope with the influx of passengers, airline ground staff had to switch to manual check-in and boarding procedures.
Delhi Airport: Double challenge for IGI
Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) has been facing increased congestion due to a combination of technical malfunction and high-profile diplomatic incidents.
Artificial Intelligence Summit 2026: The outage coincided with the arrival of global delegates for the ongoing India AI Impact Summit at Bharat Mandapam.
VIP movements: Increased security and VIP arrivals increase operational pressure, straining terminal capacity is already prevented by delays in the system.
Flight restrictions: A NOTAM (Notice to Air Duties) was already in force imposing temporary flight restrictions from 7:30 am to 3:00 pm within a 300 kilometer radius of Delhi due to the peak.
What is Navitaire?
Navitaire, owned by Amadeus, is a technology provider focused on the aviation industry. Its main platform, New Skies, is a cloud-based Passenger Service System (PSS) used by low-cost airlines to manage:
Reservations and ticketing: Integrated e-commerce and booking engines.
GoNow package: A day-of-departure tool for airport check-in, baggage tracking, and boarding.
self service: Supporting kiosks, mobile check-ins and biometric eGates.
The frequency of disruptions in aviation technology is increasing
Thursday’s outage was the latest in a series of technical outages affecting Indian aviation.
December 2025: A third-party system glitch has caused widespread check-in delays at many Indian centres.
November 2025: A major failure in the Automated Message Switching System (AMSS) at Delhi airport delayed more than 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 have been reported directly due to the disruption.
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