Air India’s Mumbai–London service, flight AI129, faced a significant delay on Saturday after the airline reported a technical issue that prevented its scheduled 6:30 am departure. According to an Air India statement, the flight is now expected to take off at 1 pm, resulting in a delay of nearly seven hours. Passengers were provided refreshments while they waited at the airport. Flight-tracking data from FlightRadar24 indicated a revised estimated departure time of around 2 pm.

The disruption comes just a day after Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport experienced one of its most severe operational breakdowns in recent months. On Friday, over 800 domestic and international flights were delayed and 20 were cancelled after the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS), which supports the transmission of flight plan data to air traffic controllers, malfunctioned. The failure cut off automated communication between airlines and ATC systems, forcing manual processing of flight information and triggering widespread delays across terminals.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) described the outage as a “technical issue” without providing clarity on the cause or nature of the breakdown. The impact of the AMSS glitch was immediate and extensive, with passengers stranded for long stretches—some for up to 12 hours. Many expressed frustration over high food prices at the airport as they waited for operations to stabilise. Several passengers reported difficulty in accessing basic amenities amid heavy crowding at gates and concourses.

Delhi’s IGI Airport, which handles more than 1,500 flight movements daily and serves as one of India’s busiest aviation hubs, has faced a series of operational malfunctions in recent months. These repeated glitches have led to growing dissatisfaction among passengers, who questioned how an international airport in the national capital could be prone to such frequent disruptions. The AMSS failure was resolved by late evening on Friday, enabling flight operations to progressively return to normal.

Saturday’s delay in Mumbai was unrelated to the Delhi incident but added to the broader air travel difficulties experienced by passengers over the weekend. Air India confirmed that safety checks and troubleshooting procedures were being carried out to address the technical issue affecting flight AI129 before it could be cleared for departure.

The back-to-back disruptions have underscored concerns about infrastructure resilience, system redundancy and the ability of airports and airlines to manage unexpected technical failures without causing large-scale passenger inconvenience. As aviation traffic continues to rise, these incidents highlight the growing need for robust operational systems and contingency planning across key airports in the country.