New Delhi:
As many as 137 flights will be running with a delay on Sunday due to five-hour shutdown of the national carrier Air India's check-in software, which occurred on Saturday morning.
In a statement, the airline's spokesperson said, “The average duration of delay on these 137 flights of Sunday would be of 197 minutes.” “A total of 149 flights were delayed on Saturday because of the software shutdown”, the spokesperson added.
When asked about its effect on Sunday, he said, "Due to delay in first sector, 137 flights are delayed by 197 minutes (average)."
It is to be noted that once an aircraft is delayed in first sector, it is bound to be delayed in the second and third sectors as well. An aircraft generally goes from one sector to another during the day. For example, while Delhi-Mumbai is one sector, Mumbai-Bengaluru is another sector and Bengaluru-Chennai is the third sector.
The average number of flights that Air India group, which also includes subsidiaries Alliance Air and Air India Express, flies daily is 674.
Thousands of passengers were stuck at airports across the world as Air India's passenger service system (PSS) software, which looks after check-in, baggage and reservation, did not function from 3.30 am to 8.45 am on Saturday due to a technical glitch.
Bollywood filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri also had to face the trouble due to the issue. He had to return home after waiting for couple of hours at the airport. "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 couple of hours," he tweeted.
The software is run by SITA. SITA's senior manager Julius Baumann had said, "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 were affected."
With inputs from PTI
