The Indian government has confirmed that several major airports, including Indira Gandhi International Airport (Delhi), Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (Mumbai), Kempegowda International Airport (Bengaluru), Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport (Kolkata), Hyderabad and others, were targeted by cyber-attacks involving GPS spoofing and GNSS interference.
According to the civil aviation ministry, several flights approaching using GPS-based landing procedures reported misleading navigation data, especially near runway approaches at Delhi, prompting air-traffic controllers and pilots to switch to conventional ground-based navigation aids.
Despite the severity of the threat, authorities say no flights were cancelled or diverted and safety was maintained, thanks to redundant legacy navigation systems and contingency protocols.
The incidents have triggered heightened cyber-security alerts at airports nationwide. The regulatory bodies have also initiated investigations, deploying monitoring agencies to trace the source of spoofed signals and strengthen safeguards around critical aviation infrastructure.
As aviation increasingly relies on satellite-based navigation, these events underscore the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to sophisticated cyber-attacks, and reaffirm the need for robust defense systems and real-time oversight.
