March 2024 Singapore Airspace Changes

Singapore and Indonesia will realign their FIRs from 21 Mar 2024.

They agreed to do this so that the new FIR boundary (between the WSJC/Singapore and WIIF/Jakarta FIRs) will be generally more aligned with Indonesia’s territorial boundaries.

It looks like not much will change in terms of flight ops, as Singapore will continue to control the airspace. For full details of the upcoming change, check SUP 18/2024.

But there is one important issue this FIR realignment will hopefully fix for good – it will now be more clear that overflights of Indonesia’s Riau Islands require an Indonesia overflight permit!

How the airspace currently looks, with Indonesia’s Riau Islands inside Singapore airspace.

This has been an issue in the past, with some flights not realizing they needed an Indonesia overflight permit to overfly these islands – as they sat under the WSJC/Singapore FIR.

In 2019, two Indonesian F-16s intercepted an Ethiopian Airlines cargo flight for flying across Indonesian airspace without permission. The aircraft was initially supposed to operate from HAAB/Addis Ababa to VHHH/Hong Kong, but was modified at the last minute to route via WSSS/Singapore instead. The aircraft was intercepted forced to land at WIDD/Batam Island.

There have been several other incidents both before and since then, including some where Indonesia blamed US and Indian military planes of violating their airspace without permission.

But when the FIRs realign on 21 Mar 2024, there should hopefully be no more confusion about permit requirements for this chunk of airspace! You can find all the details in SUP 18/2024, but here’s how it’s going to look:

And this one is maybe useful too – this shows the airspace which will continue to be controlled by Singapore ATC:

March 2024 Singapore Airspace Changes