Thaindian News

New Delhi, Dec 17 (IANS) Chaotic scenes were witnessed Friday at the snazzy new Terminal-3 (T3) of the Indira Gandhi International Airport here when the information technology systems failed for about an hour, forcing the airlines staff to manually check-in passengers, leading to long queues.”The IT systems experienced some problem, which started at 4.25 p.m. in the evening and continued till 5.30 p.m., after which the systems were restored,” said an official of the Delhi International Airport Ltd. (DIAL) that runs T-3.

According to the official, the IT glitch led to collapse in the check-in and baggage handling systems, causing inconvenience to passengers.

“The check-in systems and baggage handling systems were affected by the IT systems problem,” the official said.

Long queues were seen at the counters, as the airlines were forced to manually complete the check-in process.

“My cousin had to wait for 40 minutes for the check-in. I guess her flight to Bangalore would also be delayed,” Minakshi Singh told IANS.

Currently, T-3 uses 173 state-of-the-art common use passenger processing system (Cupps) check-in counter system which ensures that passengers are spread out and check-in formalities are faster.

The system works by using a common software-and-hardware driven platform, which integrates all the information at the airport, such as the airline’s reservation system, the expected time of flight departures, and the capacity at waiting lounges.

According to the airport official, the system failure had briefly delayed the operations at both the international and domestic piers of the new integrated terminal of the IGI airport.

Apart from International operations, T-3 also handles domestic operations of Air India, Jet Airways, JetLite and Kingfisher Airlines.