The Malaysian Insight

FIREFLY Airlines will make its first flight into Singapore’s Seletar Airport on April 21, marking the end of an almost five-month suspension of its flights into the republic following an airspace row between Malaysia and Singapore.

A highly-placed source within the company told The Malaysian Insight that the short-haul carrier’s maiden flight into Seletar will be carrying “a lot of VIPs”, but said the passenger list was still being finalised.

The source said the carrier aims to start off with two flights daily, and “gradually ramp up to 6x daily”, adding that flights will be put up for sale as early as today.

“We are still chasing the Singapore side for confirmation of slots,” he said.

Firefly’s first test flight into Seletar took off from Subang Airport at 9.40am today, said the source.

He also said the airline crew and management had been working tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure a smooth and quick resumption of its flights into Singapore after the approvals from both countries were confirmed.

Firefly was originally slated to fly into Seletar from December 1 last year, but a check with the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) last October revealed that the instrument-landing system (ILS) there was not approved on the grounds that it would interfere with development in Johor’s Pasir Gudang port.

As such, Firefly was not given the approval to operate from Seletar.

At the same time, the airline lost its landing slots at Changi International Airport, where it was operating 20 daily flights directly from Subang.

The airspace dispute has cost the airline millions of ringgit in losses as a result of the cancellation of its “lifeline” Singapore route.

Last week, transport ministers from both sides announced that a truce had been reached in the airspace dispute.

Singapore had agreed to withdraw ILS procedures for Seletar Airport while Malaysia will indefinitely suspend the permanent restricted area status in the skies over Pasir Gudang.

In January, Malaysia Airlines Group chief executive officer Izham Ismail said Firefly, which is a subsidiary of the group, had lost up to RM20 million from just the one month of its flight suspension. – April 11, 2019.