Malaysia Airlines installs HF to extend services into India

Malaysia Airline’s current VHF and satellite communications could not provide coverage to its routes to India, so the airline decided to install a serviceable HF system that would provide suitable voice communications.

In 2012, Malaysia Airlines identified an opportunity to provide a service from Kuala Lumpur to Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai in India.

The airline’s operations dispatch centre operated with VHF communications (coverage is only available up to 200 nautical miles off Kuala Lumpur) and satellite communications (SATCOM) which were not available in the B737-800 aircraft fleet they planned to use for these new flights.

As a result, it was necessary for the operations dispatch centre to have a serviceable HF system for voice communications when the aircraft are flying over the Gulf of Bengal en route to the Indian airports.

The Department of Civil Aviation also stipulated that the airline have a HF communications system at its office in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport before it would issue permission to allow Malaysia Airlines to operate flights on these routes.

Malaysia Airlines completed an internal study to gauge the feasibility for this upgrade. They found in addition to meeting the DCA requirement to service these proposed new routes, incorporating a HF communications system would also provide a back-up communications solution for other routes within the region. The internal study indicated that it was justifiable to purchase a HF ground system for this purpose.

The Barrett 2075 1KW HF system was selected for this project as the system has been developed and installed in airports throughout the world and is supported by the turnkey network solutions team at Barrett Communications.

Representatives from the airline visited the Perth facilities to conduct factory acceptance testing and completed basic operator training. Accompanying them were staff from Tactical Communications Sdn Bhd, the company’s distributor for Malaysia, headed by its sales director, Zakaria Dahili.

Dahili commented, “This visit has provided the client with the surety of a high-quality product coupled with the technical expertise we have come to know of the Barrett product range. It is also an opportunity for our client to meet the installation team and build a relationship with the Barrett training and technical staff and so they are reassured there is support via our office in Malaysia and here in Australia.”

Muzani, head of delegation of Malaysia Airlines, said, “We are confident we have made the right selection after having seen the factory operations and testing the system, which worked flawlessly; we are happy indeed to sign off the User Acceptance Certificate.”