PETALING JAYA: FlyFirefly Sdn Bhd (Firefly), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is expanding into East Malaysia with its new fleet of Boeing 737-800s in January next year to facilitate connectivity to the region.
Datuk Eddy Leong
Firefly’s five-year expansion plan will bring in a total of 30 new aircraft, which will allow for an aggressive growth rate in its current route network.
When asked on the outlook for the East Malaysian market, Firefly managing director Datuk Eddy Leong said, “Firefly is very confident of this sector. We look forward to increase our frequencies in the near future. In 2011 alone we will operate six Boeing 737-800s” during a press conference held in Petaling Jaya yesterday.
According to him, the new fleets will operate from the main terminal building of Kuala Lumpur International airport (KLIA) and will begin its operations on January 15, 2011. There will be two flights daily from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.
It will be increasing the number of flights to Kota Kinabalu to three and Kuching to four by January 24, 2011.
“Based on the demand, we will be announcing upcoming new routes soon,” said Leong.
Meanwhile, Firefly had also secured four new turboprop aircraft.
“We will have a total of 10 turboprop aircraft by January 2011. We have seven at the moment and will be taking two more in December and one more in January. Our present focus is to build up a core network and develop secondary routes,” he added.
The new four aircraft will be based in Subang and Penang respectively. “Hopefully through this, we can see more flights to Penang and more flights to Singapore.”
When asked on its turboprop business contribution, he said Firefly’s current net profit margin is above the industry average. Its breakeven seat factor is below 70 per cent, which means it only need less than 50 passengers per flight to break even.
On the product differentiation strategy, Leong explained that Firefly will enter into a code share agreement with MAS.
NEW FLEET: An artist’s impression of a Boeing 737-800 sporting the Firefly livery.
“This is a one-way code share agreement whereby Malaysia Airlines customers can buy Firefly tickets but not vice-versa. This means that the condition of carriage will be under Malaysia Airlines instead of Firefly.”
“We believe this code share agreement will give Firefly a competitive edge simply and also enhances Malaysia Airlines’ connectivity on the local network. We will be taking care of the connecting passengers as well as point-to-point passengers,” said Leong
He also revealed that Firefly’s unit cost per available seat kilometre (CASK) will be the lowest in the country. “We will leverage along with MAS and Firefly’s turboprop’s existing infrastructure and expertise. There will be no increase in engineering and ground staff.
“We will also simplify service offerings to keep ground transit time to 30 minutes, reduce wastage and achieve above 97 per cent satisfaction rate,” he concluded.
Firefly won the ‘2010 Front & Sullivan Value Airline of the Year’ award and recently the ‘Green Initiative of the Year 2010’ awarded by Leaders in Aviation Award in conjunction with the Doha Aviation Summit 2010.
To launch Firefly’s new routes, it offered 50,000 seats at an all-in one-way fare of RM9.00, which is only available online at fireflyz.com.my and through mobile booking m.fireflyz.com.my.
The booking period is from the November 8 to 14 with the travel period from January 15 to May 31, 2011.