Today/CNA-Sept 8
Under the FIR agreement, signed in January at the Singapore-Indonesia Leaders’ Retreat in Bintan, Indonesia will delegate to Singapore the provision of air navigation services in portions of the airspace within the realigned Jakarta FIR. The agreement will remain in force for 25 years and shall be extended by mutual consent if both parties find it beneficial to do so. A country’s FIR is a civil aviation demarcation managed by its air traffic service and does not necessarily follow territorial boundaries.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said after the leaders’ retreat that the FIR pact would ensure that air traffic control services are provided safely, while allowing Changi Airport to grow in the long term as an international air hub. The agreement realigns the FIR boundaries to be “generally in accordance” with Indonesia’s territorial boundaries, Mr Lee had said. Transport Minister S Iswaran also noted in Parliament in February that the FIR Agreement would support the continued growth and competitiveness of Singapore’s air hub and aviation-related sectors. Mr Iswaran said then that the agreement “decisively resolves” a longstanding issue that had been on the bilateral agenda. Previously, Indonesia had repeatedly expressed its wish to take over control of the FIR above Riau islands, which has been managed by Singapore since 1946 as mandated by the International Civil Aviation Organization. Singapore had repeatedly said that the FIR was not an issue of sovereignty, but of the safety and efficiency of commercial air traffic. Two other agreements — relating to extradition and defence cooperation — were also signed at the leaders’ retreat in January. Read more at:
