FIREFLY GETS SUBANG-SINGAPORE ROUTE, 28 FLIGHTS WEEKLY

PETALING JAYA, April 22 (Bernama) -- Community airline Firefly has obtained
approval from the Transport Ministry to operate the Singapore route from the
Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, its Subang hub.

Managing director Eddy Leong said the airline expects to start the
Subang-Singapore route in June this year, with a frequency of 28 times weekly.

The approval followed the decision by Malaysia and Singapore to further
liberalise air travel between the two countries.

"We just got the approval today from the Transport Ministry and we also have
been approved as the designated airline to fly into Singapore," said Leong after
launching WOW Bargains, the promotional tickets and packages to the airline's
newly launched routes here Tuesday.

On May 2 and 15, Firefly is flying to Batam and Padang in order to increase
the inflow of travellers for business, leisure, medical and educational purposes
into Malaysia.

It is understood that in addition to the Subang-Singapore route, Firefly,
the wholly-owned subsidiary of Malaysian Airline System Bhd (MAS), has also
obtained approval to fly from five routes to Singapore.

These are Penang-Singapore (14 times weekly), Ipoh-Singapore (four times
weekly), Terengganu-Singapore (three times weekly), Kuantan-Singapore (three
times weekly), Melaka-Singapore (four times weekly).

For the Penang-Singapore route, Leong said it will also start in June,
followed by the Terengganu-Singapore, Kuantan-Singapore and Ipoh-Singapore
routes in July.

For the Melaka-Singapore route, the airline expects to start flying in
September, he said.

Asked whether Firefly has enough aircraft to serve the new routes, Leong
said the number of planes are adequate to serve its expansion routes.

Currently, Firefly has five ATR 72-500 turboprop aircraft and it expects to
get two more new planes this year, he said.

However, Leong said, Firefly was considering whether to take three more
planes because of the current economic situation, adding that this would be
decided by year-end or early next year.

On WOW Bargains, he said customers could win airline tickets to all MAS
destinations, including Cape Town, Johannesburg, Paris, Rome, Frankfurt,
Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong.

At the event, Firefly also gave away prizes to the top spenders at the
recent Matta Fair.

On the Matta Fair, Leong said that sales increased by two-and-a-half times
from last year and also contributed to record-breaking sales for March for
Firefly since the airline was set up in April 2007.

-- BERNAMA