AAI fast-tracks upgrade to new messaging system after IGI glitch

AMHS, the newer and more advanced system, was supposed to commence operations in April 2026, but after the recent incident, the timeline was squeezed, a source said, adding that it will now be made operational by January by the Airport Authority of India (AAI).

AMSS is an automated system, which receives, processes and transmits important aeronautical messages, such as flight plans, departure and arrival details, delay and cancellation messages, meteorological and NOTAM updates between the ATC, airlines and flights.

In India, it operates in a hub and spoke model. There are 16 major airports, including Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata airports, which act as the hubs. The surrounding airports are the spokes that function under the AMSS of these hubs.

While AMSS can only transmit messages in text format, messages on Aeronautical Message Handling System (AMHS) can carry any kind of digital information, including text, graphics, images, files, databases, audio and video. AMHS also has much higher functionality and high transmission reliability.

Another significant difference is that the main server of the AMHS has to be installed at one airport and all other airports are connected to it. The main server has been installed at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport and the backup server is in Delhi.

The Mumbai airport already has had an AMHS system since 2011, on the recommendations of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), with connections established to Singapore and Nepal. Now, all the airports across the country are being bought onto the system.

Around 60-70 countries have already moved to an AMHS system, according to sources. “The current AMSS is also a robust system, but the AAI felt the need to move to AMHS in 2023. That’s when it was procured and hardware installations began at airports across the country,” a source said.

“The AAI, as the sole Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) in India, continuously modernises air navigation infrastructure and upgrades air traffic management systems to meet the growing demands of air travel,” Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Murlidhar Mohol, told the Lok Sabha in March this year, noting that one of its key initiatives include installation of “a new pan-India AMHS to replace the existing AMHS and AMSS systems, improving the performance of aeronautical, flight, and meteorological message exchanges”.

A source said that while the hardware installation at all airports is complete, training of airlines is still left, which will be conducted next month.

“The existing Indian ATC systems lack many of the advanced, integrated capabilities that are now standard in modern air traffic management systems used by global counterparts like EUROCONTROL or the FAA. These missing features include sophisticated, AI-enabled conflict detection and alerting tools, predictive analytics for traffic flow management, and seamless, real-time data sharing capabilities between different control units and with aircraft,” a report submitted in August this year by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture observed, also noting that “existing automation systems used for air traffic control, particularly at high-density airports such as Delhi and Mumbai, have begun to exhibit significant performance degradation”.

The IGI Airport has witnessed disruptions due to reasons ranging from AMSS crash to incidents of GPS spoofing as well as a crash of airlines log-in systems. “Aviation is an emerging challenge for India, as well as an opportunity. Keeping this in mind, over the last six months, the AAI has prepared a comprehensive roadmap for upgradation and modernisation of all the 112 airports it manages by 2029. This will also include expansion of our training facilities in Prayagraj, Gondia and Hyderabad,” an official said.