It looks like airspace tensions between Singapore and Malaysia have been lifted as both parties have removed restrictions concerning Singapore’s Seletar Airport.
According to a statement by Singapore’s Ministry of Transport on Saturday, Singapore will withdraw a set of landing procedures it has developed for the airport, called the Instrument Landing System.
This was the very system that Malaysian authorities said would encroach the airspace of its town of Pasir Gudang, although Singapore has said it was merely putting existing flight paths on paper.
In return, Malaysia will indefinitely suspend the restricted area label that it placed on Pasir Gudang.
As such, Malaysian budget airline carrier Firefly will be commencing flights out of Seletar Airport this month, noted the transport ministers from both Singapore and Malaysia. Flight suspensions from Firefly were put into place last December over “regulatory issues”.
The truce was done “in the spirit of bilateral cooperation”, according to the release.
“Both transport ministers welcome these positive steps and look forward to further strengthening bilateral cooperation,” read the statement.
A high-level committee has also been set up to review a 1974 document concerning airline movement between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore’s airline control centers, the statement added.
Both countries were embroiled in a spat concerning airspace and water boundaries, the latter of which developed late last year when disagreements began brewing over port boundaries in the Tuas area.
