PIA to host Malaysia’s first remote digital virtual tower

2026-03-27 - 06:30

Deputy investment, trade and industry minister Sim Tze Tzin in the remote digital virtual tower control room at the CAAM building. BAYAN LEPAS: Penang will host the country’s first remote digital virtual tower (RDVT), a state-of-the-art traffic control tower being built at the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) building near Penang International Airport (PIA). Deputy investment, trade and industry minister Sim Tze Tzin said the RDVT tower, equipped with 16 cameras, would provide live feed of inbound and outbound flights to the CAAM facility at KLIA. “We are very proud to have this high-tech traffic control tower, the first in Malaysia. “They will install (another tower) in Senai (International Airport). Eventually, they will roll the system out in more airports around the country,” Sim said in a press conference at the CAAM office here today. The Bayan Baru MP said the first phase of the RM107 million RDVT system was expected to be completed this month, and that the system would be operational in mid-April. Airport expansion progressing well He said in another press conference at the airport earlier that phase two of the airport expansion project, which involves the construction of apron facilities and other airside infrastructure, would be completed by mid-2027. Phase three, which involves the construction of a new domestic terminal and the refurbishment of the international terminal, is currently in the tender process. On March 11, Bernama reported state tourism and creative economy committee chairman Wong Hon Wai as saying that phase one, which covers the construction of ancillary buildings, was 98% complete. Sim said the government was pleased with the development of PIA’s cargo industry, as 120,000 metric tonnes of cargo passed through the airport in 2024, rising to 145,000 in 2025. As of February this year, 18,500 metric tonnes had been recorded. He also shared details of his recent work visits to multinational semiconductor firms, including Broadcom Inc, where he learned that the firm is making Penang its global logistics hub outside the US. “This means PIA is becoming a crucial logistical hub for the global semiconductor industry,” he said.