In a statement, Singapore said Seletar Airport cannot just rely on the southern runway as regional winds affect both sides at different time of the year. — Reuters pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12 ― Singapore’s Ministry of Transport insisted today that its Seletar Airport would need the Instrument Landing System (ILS) for both its southern and northern runways, of which the latter has resulted in a dispute with Putrajaya.

In a statement, the republic said Seletar Airport cannot just rely on the southern runway as regional winds affect both sides at different time of the year.

“Flight procedures for both directions are necessary because aircraft land and take off into the wind. In this region, winds blow from a north-easterly direction for half of the year, and a south-westerly direction for the other half of the year.

“Therefore, flight procedures for a southerly approach cannot safely replace all flight procedures for the northerly approach,” it said.

Singapore said it had said in a November 29 meeting with both Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) and Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) that it would need to publish ILS for both the northerly and southerly approaches into the Airport.

“Hence, CAAS explained to CAAM that in addition to the current ILS procedures for the northerly approaches into Seletar Airport, CAAS will also be implementing instrument flight procedures for the southerly approaches,” it said.

Earlier today, Malaysia’s Ministry of Transport has urged CAAS to use their “creativity” to resolve Malaysia’s disagreement with the landing procedures for the republic’s Seletar Airport.

The ministry thanked CAAS for its commitment to develop the ILS for Seletar Airport’s Runway 03 within the republic’s sovereign airspace instead of at Runway 21 on the northern side of the airport, which triggered the dispute.

In response, Singapore said today it is prepared to discuss Malaysia’s technical concerns “in good faith”.

This comes as its Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan accused Putrajaya earlier today of using the technical excuse to “trigger demand” to change the airspace that was delegated to Singapore in 1974.