DAMAGE to the instrument landing system was the factor for the traffic congestion at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on Aug 23.
Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said as a result only one runway was operating for landing and departure.
“As for the traffic congestion on Aug 25, it was due to wind movements which warranted change in directions of landing. It was carried out after seven aircraft could not land at the start of the peak arrival period due to the uncertain wind directions,” he said when answering a question from Datuk Hasbullah Osman (BN—Gerik) at the Dewan Rakyat, here, yesterday.
Hasbullah wanted to know the reason for the traffic congestion at KLIA on Aug 23 and Aug 25 and the action of the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) to overcome the problem.
Hishammuddin said the drastic increase in the movement of aircraft at KLIA since the past 12 months also contributed to the congestion because from an average of 750 movements a day, it increased to an average of 950 movements a day.
“Other factors included bad weather, haze and wind changes exceeding 10 nautical miles which required changes to take off and landing directions,” he said.
In this regard, Hishammuddin said DCA had identified two types of approaches, namely, short term and long term, to overcome the problem.
“For the short term, DCA has used the semi-mixed mode operation when required by taking into account the ratio
of aircraft landing and taking off.
“As a long term initiative, DCA will upgrade its capacity for air traffic control through project ‘Air Traffic Management Operations Plan’ by increasing the movements of aircraft at KLIA to 78 aircraft an hour from the current 68 an hour,” he added. — Bernama