Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Firefly (airline)

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FY
  
FFM

Commenced operations
  
3 April 2007

Company slogan
  
Beyond Convenience

Founded
  
16 March 2007

Parent organization
  
Malaysia Airlines

FFM
  
FIREFLY

Destinations
  
17

Headquarters
  
Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

Fleet size
  
14

Firefly (airline) httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Secondary hubs
  
Senai International Airport Sultan Ismail Petra Airport

Hubs
  
Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, Penang International Airport, Senai International Airport, Sultan Ismail Petra Airport

Profiles

FlyFirefly Sdn Bhd, operating as Firefly, is a full-service point-to-point carrier and a full subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines. Its head office is located in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. It claims to be the first community airline in Malaysia. Firefly operates from two hubs - Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, Subang, Selangor and Penang International Airport. The airline's first flight was on 3 April 2007, from Penang to Kota Bharu.

Contents

Management and operation

Firefly has a separate management apart from its parent company, Malaysia Airlines. Firefly focuses on serving the Malaysia as well as Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.

Idris Jala, Malaysia Airlines' managing director, speaking at a business briefing and launch of the new airline's logo on 16 March 2007, said Firefly would work with MAS in breaking new ground and realising a core network over the next five years. The core network would include markets such as North America, South America and South Africa.

Destinations

Firefly flies from two hubs, Penang and Subang in Kuala Lumpur. The domestic flights from Penang are Langkawi, Kota Bharu, Subang, Kuala Terengganu and Kuantan 2 flights daily, and Phuket in Thailand a daily flight. The flights out of Subang are Penang, Langkawi, Alor Setar, Johor Bahru, Kuala Terengganu and Kota Bharu, Singapore, , and Pekanbaru in Indonesia. However, Firefly announced on 8 March 2009 that flights from Penang to Kuala Terengganu, Kota Bharu and Kuantan have been temporarily suspended. In 2011, the routes to Kuala Terengganu, Kota Bharu, and Kuantan from Penang have been reinstated.

Malaysia
  • Subang - Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport Hub
  • Penang - Penang International Airport Hub
  • Johor Bahru - Senai International Airport Secondary Hub
  • Kota Bharu - Sultan Ismail Petra Airport Secondary Hub
  • Alor Setar - Sultan Abdul Halim Airport
  • Ipoh - Sultan Azlan Shah Airport
  • Kuala Terengganu - Sultan Mahmud Airport
  • Kuantan - Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Airport
  • Langkawi - Langkawi International Airport
  • Indonesia
  • Banda Aceh - Sultan Iskandar Muda International Airport
  • Singapore
  • Singapore - Singapore Changi Airport
  • Thailand
  • Phuket - Phuket International Airport
  • Future destinations

    The airline is planning to use Malacca International Airport in Malacca to expand their base. New departure scheduled soon departs from Malacca are Malacca-Singapore, Malacca-Penang, Malacca-Medan Kuala Namu and Malacca-Kota Bharu. Other new routes there are under planning are Subang-Bengkulu, Subang-Jambi, Subang-Palembang, Subang-Padang, Phuket-Langkawi, Penang-Krabi and Penang-Hua Hin.

    The airline has also been granted rights to fly from Singapore to Subang, Penang, Kuantan, Terengganu, Ipoh & Malacca.

    Fleet

    Firefly started operations with two 50-seater Fokker 50 aircraft. It also took delivery of a third leased Fokker 50 aircraft to expand its services.

    On 26 June 2007, Malaysia Airlines signed an agreement for the acquisition of ten ATR 72-500 aircraft with options for ten more (which was exercised), to replace the Fokker 50s. The aircraft started to arrive from 11 August 2008, with five delivered in 2008, five in 2009, four in 2010 and the rest in 2011. All Fokker F50s retired by the end of 2008.

    On 25 August 2010, Firefly announced that it would take up four ATR 72s in the option clause of the purchase agreement. On 8 November 2010, Firefly announced an order for 30 Boeing 737-800 aircraft from year-end to 2015 as part of its expansion into east Malaysia initially, and into regional markets in the future. Firefly's first Boeing 737-800 arrived in December 2010 and began its operations on 15 January 2011.

    On 16 August 2011, Firefly announced that it would only operate the ATR aircraft from Subang and Penang, and cease its Boeing 737-800 and Boeing 737-400 flights. Jet operations were discontinued in accordance with a restructuring-of-services agreement made between Malaysia Airlines (Firefly's parent company) and AirAsia. On 16 September 2011, Firefly ceased the Johor Bahru - Kuching route. Other Boeing 737 services, including Kuala Lumpur - Kuching and Kuala Lumpur - Kota Kinabalu, were transferred to Malaysia Airlines in October 2011.

    On 18 December 2012, MASwings' parent company, Malaysia Airlines, ordered 36 ATR 72-600s for its subsidiaries. Twenty of the ordered aircraft will be delivered to Firefly while the remaining sixteen will enter service with MASwings.

    As of February 2017, the Firefly fleet consists of the following aircraft:

    References

    Firefly (airline) Wikipedia