AIRSPACE: A recurring theme that troubles the relation between Indonesia and Singapore

Excerpt:
Indonesian politicians and military personnel have also called for Indonesia to ‘take back’ areas over Riau within Indonesian airspace which have formed part of the Singapore Flight Information Region (FIR) since 1946, when the International Civil Aviation Organization allocated the area to Singapore based on operational and technical considerations. 

The FIR assigned to Singapore includes some of the territorial airspace of Malaysia and Indonesia, and such overlaps are common in many parts of the world including Europe, Africa and South America. The Jakarta FIR, for example, also covers Timor Leste territorial airspace.

While the Indonesians argue that this is their sovereign right as it is part of their territorial airspace, Singapore has managed the FIR as a public good focusing on operational efficiency and the safety of navigation in increasingly crowded skies. 

The Indonesian media frequently misrepresents Singapore’s management of the FIR claiming that Singapore profits from air navigation charges, delays planes taking off or landing at Batam to accommodate Changi’s traffic and discriminates against Indonesian airlines in flight level allocation. None of this is true.

The fees collected by Singapore are remitted annually to Indonesia and there is proper accounting between the two countries while traffic movements are handled solely on the basis of operational efficiency. A former Indonesian Air Force Chief of Staff even claimed that Singapore would be “destroyed” if Indonesia took over the FIR, simplistically concluding that Singapore’s role as an air transport hub would be undermined and our entire economy would be ruined.

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