Following the recent GPS spoofing at Delhi’s IGIA, regular reports of GPS jamming have emerged from Kolkata, Amritsar, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai.
Days after security experts attributed delays at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) on November 7 to a massive cyberattack, Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu on Monday confirmed deliberate interference with the satellite navigation systems at other Indian airports in the Rajya Sabha.
The disruption early last month resulted in over 150 flights being affected at India’s busiest aviation hub.
In a written reply to a question from S Niranjan Reddy of the YSR Congress Party, Naidu said that instances of GPS spoofing were reported by some flights using landing procedures based on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) while approaching Runway 10 of the airport.
This led to contingency procedures being deployed to ensure safe landings for the affected flights. Naidu clarified that flight movements on other runways, which rely on conventional navigation aids, were not impacted.
The aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), had earlier issued a circular for GNSS interference in airspace on November 24, 2023. This was followed by Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) guidelines two years later, on November 10, 2025, for real-time reporting of GPS jamming and spoofing around IGIA.
Since November 2023, regular reports of GPS jamming have been received from other major airports, including Kolkata, Amritsar, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai, Naidu said.
GPS jamming blocks or overwhelms legitimate satellite signals so that receivers cannot pick them up. GPS spoofing, by contrast, feeds false but convincing signals to receivers, tricking them into calculating incorrect positions or times.
Mitigation Measures
To counter these threats, a Minimum Operating Network (MON) consisting of conventional, ground-based navigation and surveillance infrastructure has been retained in line with global best practices. This ensures that even if satellite signals are compromised, aircraft can still rely on traditional navigation systems for safe operations.
India is also participating in global platforms to stay abreast of the latest methodologies and technologies for timely implementation.
Naidu added that global cybersecurity threats to the aviation sector are increasingly taking the form of ransomware and malware attacks. As a safeguard, the airport operator Airports Authority of India (AAI) is implementing advanced cybersecurity solutions for IT networks and infrastructure, in accordance with guidelines from the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).
Both NCIIPC and CERT-In are national agencies tasked with protecting critical infrastructure and responding to cyber incidents.
AAI has also requested the Wireless Monitoring Organization (WMO), India’s spectrum monitoring agency, to identify the source of such interference. In a high-level meeting held in November 2025, WMO was directed to mobilise more resources to trace the spoofing source based on approximate location details shared by DGCA and AAI.
Naidu assured that the evolving nature of threats to civil aviation is being addressed through continuous upgrades and other protective measures.
– Manish Pant