Civil Aviation Department gets RM700 million for upgrades

The Civil Aviation Department (DCA) is getting a RM700 million upgrade to its air traffic management systems to keep up with increasing demands.

A DCA official told theSun that the new system will be able to process significantly more data and information, which will allow Air Traffic Control (ATC) to perform its duties in a safer and more efficient manner.

"The number of planes flying through Malaysian airspace is increasing by day. Therefore, a new system is needed because there will be a significant increase in data and information volume.

"This will need to be processed to enable the ATC to work in a safe and efficient manner," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told theSun.

According to the source, more than 3,000 aircrafts go through Malaysian airspace daily, with some landing at airports and others only passing by, and KLIA alone handles about 1,200 flights a day.

With the new system, he said, ATC will be able to maximize the number of aircrafts in the vicinity without compromising safety.

The source said the new hardware and software will also help Malaysia comply with new International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) requirements.

These include implementing the Air Traffic Services Inter-facility Data Communications (AIDC) system, which will allow information sharing between local ATCs and foreign ATCs.

"With the AIDC, all information from one Air Traffic Service Unit (ATSU) to another, such as the Kuala Lumpur Flight Information Region (FIR) and Chennai FIR in India will be shared through a computerised system in a standard format.

"It will minimise or eliminate any distortion of information. (ICAO) Contracting states have to ensure that their system must be compatible with other neighbouring states for AIDC to work," he said.

The other requirement, he said, is to implement the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADSB) system, which will allow an aircraft to determine its position via satellite navigation and broadcast it back to ATC for tracking.

Lastly, he said the system will be ready by the end of 2019.