Malaysia wants to take back control and management of its airspace, which was delegated to Singapore in 1974. According to the Minister of Transport (MOT) Anthony Loke, Malaysia is reviewing the agreement with the island republic and sees it as its top priority. Loke said it was Malaysia’s sovereign right to manage its own airspace after 45 years.
Malaysia is currently building the new Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Centre (KLATCC). Construction started in late 2017 and is slated to be completed at the end of the year, with the facility targeted to be operational in the first quarter of 2020. Located at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), the center is expected to ultimately cost some $150 million to complete.
KLATCC will replace the existing 25-year-old system at the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (SAASA) in Subang, 23 km outside the city.
It will house the air traffic control operations for the KL Flight Information Region (KLFIR), becoming the backbone of the country's ATC infrastructure as well as the coordination center for the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia’s (previously known as Department of Civil Aviation) Search and Rescue System.
A new satellite-based ADS-B ground facility will be installed and operational in line with the Aviation System Block Upgrade targeted by International Civil Aviation Organization.
KLATCC would also be the starting point to restructure the KL FIR airspace. KLIA will the third airport in Asia to be able to operate at capacity, using three runways simultaneously, which increases the number of landings from the current 78 per hour to 108. The other two are Beijing Capital International Airport and Shanghai Pudong Airport.
Under the terms of the Operational Letter of Agreement between the KL and Singapore Area Control Centres Concerning Singapore Arrivals, Departures and Overflights 1974, the airspace in southern Peninsula Malaysia had been managed by Singapore. Loke said MOT’s secretary general and Singapore’s Transport Ministry (STM) permanent secretary is reviewing the agreement.
In a separate development, Loke said Malindo Air has applied to STM to introduce flights on the SAASA-Seletar Airport route using ATR72-500 turboprops. Meanwhile, SAASA-based Firefly will start operating to Seletar on April 21, also using ATR72-500s.
