In the postwar period, with the reconstruction, conversion of military airfields and ground services to the public, air transport facitilities and the creation of anorganisation overseeing this became necessary for the civil administration and control of flying. On the reoccupation of Malaya, a Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) was formed with it headquarters in SIngapore. This formation spearheaded Singapore's rise as the East Asian and later the global pivot of the network of air travel. Communications, local and regional air traffic control, the registration and licensing of aircraft, the execution of requirements laid down by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) were some of the demads made on the Department in controlling commercial aviation activities.
With the attainment of internal self-government in 1959, all communications services in Singapore were brought under the portfolio of one Minister and the Department of Civil Aviation came under the charge of the then Deputy Prime Minister, Dr Toh Chin Chye. The responsibility for Civil Aviation was passed briefly to the Malaysian Ministry of Transport in 1963 in KL when Malaysia was established. It was recerted to the DPM's Office when Singapore became a soveriegn, independent nation as a Republic in 1965. On September 1984 the Department of Civil Aviation was converted into the Civil Aviation Authority (CAAS) and carried out more varied responsibilities.
