RVSM implementation in Malaysia

Abstract

This paper addresses the current scenario of air traffic over Malaysian airspace and its impact on existing routes and capacity. In dealing with the increase of capacity, ICAO has embarked on implementing several new measures that would accommodate more aircrafts and the same time maintaining the highest level of safety. Those measures are outlined in ICAO's Doc 9574 and 9937. Instead of introducing more routes, which up to one point could reach its maximum saturation point, ICAO has introduced Reduced Vertical Separation Minima (RVSM). RVSM increases the number of aircraft that can be accommodated on the given route. The Malaysian airspace is strategically located in the middle of the Westbound and Eastbound routes over the Asia Pacific region. This is an added advantage for the installation the Height Monitoring Unit for RVSM performance of aircraft. Generally, almost all of the aircraft overflying Malaysian airspace are already at their optimum flight levels. This paper uses the trend for year 2010 and 2011 data provided by the Department of Civil Aviation of Malaysia in the analysis. The paper analyses the current scenario of air traffic safety over Malaysian airspace and identifies suggestions to develop a system that could extract information from ADS-B for height monitoring purposes.