Immigration glitch causes chaos at Amritsar airport

Passengers at Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport, Amritsar, faced inconvenience late on Monday night after a technical glitch in the immigration system disrupted routine processing, leading to long queues and temporary chaos at the airport.

According to officials, the malfunction slowed immigration clearance and passenger processing, resulting in lengthy waiting times for travellers around 10 pm. As the backlog increased, long queues formed at the immigration counters, causing confusion and frustration among passengers. Several travellers expressed concern about missing their flights, while others complained of delays and inconvenience.

The situation triggered panic among some passengers and videos showing travellers arguing with airport staff surfaced on social media.

Airport authorities, however, said they acted swiftly to address the issue. Technical teams were immediately deployed to rectify the fault, while efforts were made to manage passenger movement and restore normal operations. Airport Director Bhupinder Singh said a technical problem related to the immigration system had caused the disruption.

“The issue persisted until 12.20 am, but was fully resolved thereafter. Around 500 passengers from four flights were affected. We opened additional counters and introduced direct processing arrangements to manage the situation. The system was restored and operations returned to normal soon afterwards,” he said.

The Airport Director further clarified that all services are now functioning smoothly and passengers are no longer facing any difficulties. Authorities have also initiated measures to strengthen monitoring of critical systems and enhance technical safeguards to prevent similar incidents in the future.