Scores of passengers have got stranded at Kolkata's Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport as flight operations were severely impacted following a major internet server malfunction on Monday. The trouble started at around 5.15 pm this evening, forcing the airlines to issue the boarding passes manually to its passengers. The self-service check-in kisoks were found to be non-functional since 5.30 pm. The glitch also resulted in delay of around 30 flights, leading to chaos and acute panic at the airport.
"Over 20 flights delayed at Kolkata airport after a fault in Local Area Network inside the airport. Issue started around 5:15 pm after which all airlines started issuing boarding pass manually. Airport authorities say IT Team working on the issue," the news agency ANI reported, adding that the FIDS (Flight Information Display System) and cameras are also not working at the airport.
West Bengal: Over 20 flights delayed at Kolkata airport after a fault in Local Area Network inside the airport. Issue started around 5:15 pm after which all airlines started issuing boarding pass manually. Airport authorities say IT Team working on the issue. https://t.co/ouDpHOeNIk
— ANI (@ANI) May 13, 2019
However, the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which manages more than 100 airports across the country, said that the fault has already been identified and the IT team is working diligently to resolve the issue.
"The Internet server has been down since 5.30 pm and it is likely to start working from 10.30 pm today (Monday). Around 25 flights have been delayed in between 5.30 pm and 9 pm by an average time of 20-25 minutes," an AAI official said in a statement.
In the mean time, many passengers took to twitter and complained about the delay as they have been facing a harrowing time at the Kolkata airport for the last few hours. Some of them also tweeted pictures and videos of long queues at the airport.
#indigoairlines #Kolkata #Kolkataairport systems down, passengers stranded, all flights delayed :( pic.twitter.com/x5LQXm7MWN
— Srini (@Srinikon) May 13, 2019
Server malfunction triggers chaos at #kolkataairport , 20 flights delayed. @AAI_Official https://t.co/wzEN4udhkT pic.twitter.com/pGLb5KrWgL
— Ashoke Raj✈ï¸à¦†à¦¶à§‹à¦• রাজ (@ashokeraj007) May 13, 2019
Located approximately 17 kilometres away from the city centre, the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport serves the Kolkata metropolitan area. The airport, which was earlier known as Dum Dum Airport, is the largest hub for air traffic in the eastern part of the country and one of two international airports operating in West Bengal, the other being Bagdogra. It is a major centre for flights to Northeast India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China and Southeast Asia.