A view of the city of Johor Bahru, Malaysia from the neighbouring Singapore. (Photo: AFP/VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Malaysia has informed Singapore that itwants to take back control of airspace over southern Johor that the city-statehas managed since 1974, said Transport Minister Anthony Loke on December 4.
The move came amid a dispute over a flight path to a secondary airport inSingapore.
“We feel that it is nowthe time that we regained the control of our very own airspace because over theyears, we have also upgraded our air traffic control and we think we arecapable of doing so,” he noted.“So we want to begin the process of negotiations with our Singaporecounterpart.”
Singapore has put in placea new instrument landing system at its small Seletar airport to be used byturboprops and business jets, that involves a flight path over Malaysian airspace without its permission, Loke told the Singaporean parliament.
He said the flight pathwould lead to height limits on building development and affect shippingoperations in the state of Johor on the south of the Malaysian peninsula thatborders the island of Singapore.
Last month, Malaysia refused to approve theflight path and voiced thatit intends to reclaim the airspace, that it haddelegated for management by Singapore, in phases with the first expected aroundthe end of 2019.
In response to Loke’s comments, the Singaporean transportministry said in a statement that the city-state “respects Malaysia’ssovereignty.”
“Airspace in this regionis one of the most complex in the world… The benefits to both our economies andour people have been tremendous. Hence, any proposed changes will impact manystakeholders,” it added. –VNA
VNA
