FIREFLY ON PROFITABLE ROUTE THIS YEAR

PETALING JAYA (Malaysia), Jan 22 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's community airline,
Firefly, is confident of remaining profitable this year based on its 1.4 million
passenger target, Managing Director Eddy Leong said Thursday.

Last year, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) carried
about 400,000 passengers.

To further support sales and passenger load, he said, the airline will
take delivery of another five new ATR 72-500 planes between April and August
and fly 19 new routes this year.

Currently, Firely operates on five ATR 72-500 planes and 17 routes --
four domestic and 13 regional, he told reporters after opening of the Sultan
Abdul Aziz Shah Airport ticketing office.

He said Firefly hoped to operate the Subang-Singapore route this year,
subject to approval from the Transport Ministry. Firefly had applied for four
times daily flight for the route.

"We submitted the application recently and are awaiting approval. We have
high hopes (for approval) as this is part of the Asean open skies policy,"
he said.

Leong said the airline had applied for all the routes to Singapore, namely
Penang-Singapore, Ipoh-Singapore, Melaka-Singapore, Kuala Terengganu-Singapore
and Kuantan-Singapore.

Other new routes for this year include Subang-Phuket, Subang-Krabi,
Penang-Huahin and Subang-Alor Setar, he said.

Leong said the economic downturn would not have an impact on its expansion
plans, with the airline focusing on community rather than leisure routes.

"We focus on bringing the community together. Therefore, we are less exposed
to the economic downturn. We fly to places that are less competitive and we
have not seen any sign of slowing down," he said.

To stay ahead of its competitors, Leong said Firefly's focus remain
with operating secondary routes that will give advantage as bigger aircraft are
unable to serve these routes.

"Firefly is part of (Malaysia Airlines) MAS' business transformation plan
and our role is to grow MAS' business as well, he said.

On the ticketing office, Leong said Firefly will be opening more such
offices in stages to destinations it flies to, namely Kuantan, Kuala Terengganu,
Kota Baharu (cities in Malaysia's east coast states), northern Langkawi,
Indonesia and Thailand.

The move is in line with Firefly's expansion plan in terms of ticket sales
and distribution. The office opens daily from 5.30am to 9pm.

In conjunction with the opening, Firefly is offering complimentary one night
hotel stay, courtesy of Sheraton Subang Hotel and Towers, to the first 10 people
who purchased tickets to any destination at the ticketing office from Friday.
-- BERNAMA