South-east Asian aviation faces growing pains

Subject

Challenges facing South-east Asia's aviation industry.

Significance

South-east Asia is experiencing one of the sharpest increases in air passenger traffic anywhere in the world. Besides intensifying competition between airlines, this is prompting disputes over airspace and straining capacity at many of the region’s airports.

Impacts

• Indonesia’s establishment of air defence identification zones could intensify territorial and airspace disputes in the South China Sea.
• The deferral of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed railway will mean little change to air traffic levels between the two places.
• Changes to funding for Malaysian airport operators could result in higher fees being passed on to passengers to cover development costs.