What Is GPS Spoofing and how it disrupted 800+ flights in Delhi?

Air travel across India faced massive disruption on Friday as a technical malfunction hit the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, New Delhi. The issue led to widespread flight delays and cancellations, affecting over 800 flight operations and causing ripple effects throughout Indian airspace.

According to reports, the disturbance was linked to a series of GPS spoofing incidents that had been occurring in recent days, adding to the chaos at the country’s busiest airport.

What Is GPS Spoofing?

Cybersecurity experts describe GPS spoofing as a cyberattack technique in which false signals are broadcast to manipulate a GPS receiver. This results in the receiver displaying incorrect location data, misleading systems into believing they are in a different place altogether.

As explained by cybersecurity firm McAfee, such attacks can compromise the reliability of GPS-based data used in critical operations like navigation, mapping, and time synchronisation. Over time, the practice has evolved into a significant security threat due to the accessibility of advanced equipment capable of generating counterfeit GPS signals.

'These spoofed signals can cause aircraft navigation systems to misinterpret their exact positions, leading to false alerts and potentially hazardous situations,' experts noted.

Impact on Delhi Airport Operations

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) confirmed that the technical issue at Delhi Airport was resolved by Friday evening. However, it warned that normal operations would take some time to stabilise due to a heavy backlog of flights waiting for clearance.

Complicating matters further, strong eastern winds forced multiple flights to alter their runway approach, with aircraft landing from the Dwarka side and departing from the Vasant Kunj side. This change in pattern led to additional airspace congestion and extended waiting times for both arrivals and departures.

Reports from The Hindu indicated that several airlines operating in and around Delhi had been encountering severe GPS spoofing incidents over the past week. These false navigation signals reportedly caused erroneous readings such as incorrect aircraft positioning and misleading terrain warnings.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has launched a formal investigation into the matter, seeking to determine whether these spoofing events are connected to the ATC disruption experienced on Friday.

Need for ATC System Modernisation

Concerns about the ageing infrastructure of India’s Air Traffic Control systems are not new. In a report released in August 2025, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport emphasised the urgent need for a comprehensive modernisation of ATC automation systems across the country.

The committee cautioned that outdated technology poses serious operational and safety challenges, particularly at high-traffic airports like Delhi and Mumbai. It urged authorities to undertake a time-bound upgrade to improve reliability, cybersecurity, and capacity management within the airspace system.

While operations at IGI Airport are gradually returning to normal, the incident serves as a wake-up call for India’s aviation ecosystem. The combination of a technical system failure and cyber threats such as GPS spoofing highlights the growing need for robust digital defences and modernised infrastructure in critical sectors like aviation.