Firefly To Expand Indonesian and Thai Services

Firefly, Malaysia's second low-cost carrier, is planning to expand its services to Sumatra, Indonesia, and Southern Thailand next year. Among the new routes the airline is looking at are Bandar Aceh, Palembang, Pekan Baru, Padang, all in Indonesia, and Haadyai and Krabi in Southern Thailand.  

Firefly chief executive officer Eddy Leong said the new routes would start when they took delivery of the first three new ATR 72-500s aircraft in September from Avions de Transport Régional (ATR), an Italian-French based aircraft manufacturer.  

“We have the landing rights to fly to these destinations but currently we don't have enough aircraft to service the routes. We will start the new routes when we get the new planes.”  

Currently, Firefly flies the Penang, Subang, Kuantan, Kota Baru, Kuala Terengganu, Langkawi and Johor Baru routes. They also fly to Phuket and Koh Samui in Thailand.  

Flyfly and MASwings, both Malaysian Airline subsidiaries, signed a deal with ATR at the Lima exhibition to buy 20 of such planes. The model has 72 seats. The deal was worth US$650mil.  ATR aircraft offer state-of-the- art technological innovations in passenger comfort, communications and navigation tools. 

Leong said 10 of the aircraft would be for Firefly and the rest for MASwings. Both airlines will take delivery of the planes in stages.  

“We chose to buy the ATR model because it is 50% more economical that other jets and able to take off and land on shorter runways,” he said.  He said the airline also had the option to buy another 10 aircraft.  

MASwings managing director Dr Amin Khan said the new planes would replace their current aging Fokker 50 aircraft servicing the domestic Sabah and Sarawak routes.

“The plane also has the lowest cost-per-passenger, level of noise and vibration inside the cabin.”  

Yesterday, both airlines signed the Memorandum of Understanding with ATR shortly after the opening of the exhibition.  The MOU was signed between ATR chief executive officer Stephane Mayer and Malaysia Airlines executive director and chief finance officer Tengku Azmil Zahruddin.  

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy witnessed the event.
Source: Star Publications