Firefly Expands to neighbouring countries 
Firefly Expands to neighbouring countries
Firefly plans new destinations to Thailand while rolling up its sleeves to improve passenger loads on existing routes.
Firefly,
the Malaysian-based low-cost airline, is planning new services to
Thailand, next year, from its main hub of Penang and a new hub in Johor
Bahru.
At the same time, the airline hopes to find partners to
tap international passengers who need a connection to destinations in
Malaysia.
The airline's communications and marketing head,
Angelina Corrina Fernandez, revealed at the launch of a new Kula
Lumpur-Samui service that Firefly would inaugurate more services next
year to Thailand.
"One is from our new hub Johor Bahru, the gateway to Singapore and one from Penang," she said.
"The
first priority is a Thai destination to link with Johor Bahru. It has
not been finalised yet whether it will be Samui or Phuket, while for
the Penang, hub the link will most likely will be with Hua Hin."
Ms Fernandez said that Thailand appealed to Malaysians because of the close distance and it was not an expensive destination.
As for Hua Hin she added it was an untapped market, few Malaysians had travelled there.
Firefly
Airlines Marketing Representative director, Santi Wongsawat, confirmed
that in addition to Hua Hin the airline was studying Krabi, but it
would probably by put on the back burner because AirAsia was flying
that route from Malaysia.
Concerning the existing services from
Penang to Samui and Phuket and Kuala Lumpur to Samui, Mr Santi said the
airline needed partners to link them with international gateways.
"First
of all we need code share cooperation with our mother company, Malaysia
Airlines to facilitate international passengers so they can connect to
Samui and Phuket via Kuala Lumpur."
Packages will also be
launched for two-night stopovers. Initially, the packages will be
available for the UK and German markets because Firefly has
representatives there.
Code share agreement is aimed to make
Malaysia a gateway to the so called Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth
Triangle to make it more convenient for tourists from Europe, the US,
Australia and the Middle East to explore this region.
Mr Santi
added: "We will work with Bangkok Airways to connect with its flights
out of Phuket and Samui. Also we hope to pick up international
passengers from Samui or Phuket to Bangkok so that they can connect to
international flights, without having to return to Kuala Lumpur."
Firefly
will study potential traffic on the Kuala Lumpur-Samui route to decide
if daily services are an option. Advance booking for the next three
months represent a 68% cabin factor across the fleet. As for
Penang-Samui service, traffic has picked up, running at an 85% average
load factor since May.
By the end of this year, it will have
five brand new ATR-72 aircraft and by August 2009, the fleet will
increase to 10 ATRs. In 2009, the airline hopes to establish services
from both Penang and Kula Lumpur to Singapore.
Source: http://www.ttrweekly.com/site/index.php?id=138&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=881&tx_ttnews[backPid]=123&cHash=783988159f
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