New Delhi: Flights operating near Delhi and many other major airports across the country have reported instances of GPS spoofing and GNSS interference over the past year, the Central government told Parliament on Monday, the opening day of the Winter session.
In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu outlined the scale of reported incidents and measures being taken to address the issues.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in November 2023 made it mandatory to report any case of GPS jamming or spoofing. Since then, regular reports are being received from other major airports in the country, including Kolkata, Amritsar, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai airports, the minister confirmed.
Naidu, responding to questions raised by MP S Niranjan Reddy, said that some flights approaching Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in New Delhi had reported GPS spoofing while using satellite-based landing procedures on Runway 10.
He assured Parliament that contingency procedures were activated for these flights.
Operations on other runways, which use conventional ground-based navigation systems, were not affected.
To identify the precise source of interference, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has sought the help of Wireless Monitoring Organisation (WMO).
WMO has been directed to mobilise additional resources and use approximate spoofing-location data shared by the DGCA and AAI to track the origin of the signals.
Highlighting broader cybersecurity threats to the aviation sector, such as ransomware and malware targeting critical systems, AAI has deployed advanced cyber-security solutions across its IT networks and infrastructure. The upgrades are in accordance with guidelines issued by the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).
Authorities said cyber-security measures are being continuously enhanced, with new protections added as threats evolve. India is also participating in global aviation-security forums to stay updated on the latest technologies and methodologies, they added.
