“Firefly is the first to introduce the revolution of turbo prop with its ATR 72-500 in Malaysia for domestic and regional flights. With higher fuel efficiency, low vibration levels and lower noise emission, the fleet is reputed to be the most economical with jet like comfort and environmental friendly aircraft in existence. In this sense we stand together with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the Kyoto Protocol under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in reducing carbon emissions in the environment by upholding our Carbon Policy,” said the elated Dato’ Eddy Leong Managing Director of Firefly upon accepting the award at the function sponsored by Mitsubishi Regional Jets.

“Firefly is thrilled to be the airline of choice as proven by this award. This honour will spur us to greater heights to be recognized as one of the most community-focused airline in the world, offering a new flying experience to all our passengers. In fighting for the cause of environment, we believe that it can be done, and this is how we do it,” added Eddy again.

As part of the Support Green efforts, Firefly believes in adopting the 3R (Reduce, Reuse & Recycle) practice of using the earth’s resources in the most sustainable fashion in our working operations and culture. Part of the initiatives are re-using existing airport and facilities as well as encouraging paperless environment through our web and mobile booking.

Just marking its third year into the industry last April 2010, Firefly has instantly taken charge by thinking globally, and acting locally. Rising above towards an exceptional growth in the aviation scene, this of course includes effective implementation that considers innovative methods in utilizing existing technologies and cost effectiveness while considering the impact on the overall environment. In terms of sustaining this good balance, Firefly marks the beauty of being small.

The Green Initiative of the Year category honours the airline that has demonstrated strong commitment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and has adopted a responsible attitude towards climate change. Initiative’s overall environmental benefits, emission reduction strategies, innovative method of implementing or utilizing existing technologies, effective implementation and cost effectiveness were the main criteria for judging this award.

This annual award event is in recognition of individuals and organisations across a range of categories in the aviation sector. From success stories that span practices and innovation, including corporate achievements, the strongest individual efforts, and the most compelling community efforts, The Leader in Aviation Awards recognise, promote and reward excellence across the globe in the most exciting industry in the world.

Firefly’s first Boeing 737-800 arrives in December 2010 and will begin its operations on the 15th of January 2011 from the Main Terminal Building, KLIA.

From 15th of January 2011:

• 2x daily Kuala Lumpur – Kota Kinabalu
• 2x daily Kuala Lumpur – Kuching

From 24th of January 2011:

• 3x daily Kuala Lumpur – Kota Kinabalu
• 4x daily Kuala Lumpur – Kuching

From 15th of January 2011:

From 24th of January 2011:

1) Aminuddin Hilmi Ahmad

2) Crystal Wong Mei Mei

3) Valentine Anthony

4) Mohd Fakrul bin Hisham

5) Norsufira binti Halim

6) Chelsea Lim Siew Yin

7) Devan Raj

8 ) Lee Chang Wei

A member of the Firefly team will contact you with your prize details shortly. Thank you for participating in the contest. For those of you who didn’t win this time, don’t worry. We have other exciting contests in the pipeline – watch this space for updates!

Thank you.

Terms and conditions

1. The contest starts on 26 October and ends on 8 November 2010.
2. The contest is open to all Malaysian only.
3. The contest is open to all aged 18 years and above except employees and immediate family of the Organizer.
4. Participants must be fit and healthy to be on the ‘Hot seat’.
5. Participants must submit their entry to contactus@fireflyz.com.my before 2359 of 8 November 2010.
6. The winners will receive ONE (1) HOT SEAT pass at the Monsoon Cup 2010 , ONE(1) Limited Edition Firefly Orange Jersey and Cap.
7. The winners must obey to all rules and regulations given by Monsoon Cup to participate as a ‘Hot Seat’ member.
8. EIGHT (8) winners for the best entry will be selected and the announcement will be made on the 12 November 2010 on Firefly’s Blog.
9. Prizes are non-exchangeable, non-redeemable and non-transferable for cash.
10. Prizes must be claimed at the winners’ own expense.
11. All contest entries will become the property of Firefly.
12. We reserve the right to change, cancel, terminate, divert and postpone, reschedule or delay the contest.
13. Terms and conditions are subjected to changes without prior notice.

To be on the ‘Hot seat’:

1. Participants must be fit and able-bodies.
2. Participants must be 18 years old and above.
3. Participants must obey the rules and regulations given by Monsoon Cup to be on the ‘Hot seat’.
4. Participants must understand and carry out instructions on ‘Hot seat’ which will be in English.
5. Participants must be able to understand and speak English.

The top three lucky winners were Joanne Tan (1st day), Lee Sow Wan (2nd day) and Teh Suet Hoon (3rd day), who all made bulk purchases of Firefly’s exclusive packages worth RM37,000 in total. Additionally, there were also complimentary hotel vouchers and Chronotech watches given away to the second and third highest spenders. All these prizes are worth more than RM200,000.

After winning two return free flights to Johannesburg, Teh Suet Hoon who was still full of elations said, “Firefly is full of surprises. I am still overwhelmed as I never thought I would be such a jet-setter, traveling on my planned Koh Samui family trip during CNY holidays and then off to Johannesburg. I expected a prize, but not this big!”

Ms Angelina Fernandez, Firefly’s Head of Marketing & Communications said, “The promotional flights and packages were already going like hot cakes on the first day. Seeing that, it was no surprise that our overwhelming sales percentage hit beyond our initial targeted figure by more than 15% overall. Many purchases were made by our very own Malaysians for this year end holidays.  There were also many purchases made very much in advance for the first quarter of 2011.

Langkawi being a popular local destination was highly in demand and was our top selling domestic packages at the MATTA Fair which is encouragingly in line with our commitment in promoting Cuti-cuti Malaysia. These sales contributed more than 50% to our total sales”

“As for our regional destinations, Koh Samui was in demand with more than 25% of our overall sales. Most of the purchasers were honeymooners planning for year-end travel, purchasing both tickets, hotel and tour packages.  This destination is also a hot spot among the Malaysian youngsters.  Medan was also seen as an attractive destination, with sales of 20% from our total. We believe the overall response this time around was great due to the truly affordable best bargains whereby we have thrown in some complimentary value-adds such as free night stays, dinner, transfers or spa sessions,” she added.

FIREFLY’s FLEET

To further sustain its stability in the tourism sector, Firefly will be increasing its present turboprop fleet with the purchase of three additional ATR72-500s, two of which will be delivered in December 2010 and the third in January 2011. Entry into service will be one month from the delivery date. This brings Firefly’s total turboprop fleet size to 10. The additional aircraft will be used to strengthen Firefly’s current network footprint through increased frequency for high demand sectors and reinstatement of some Penang based routes.

The open house was held on 5 OCT at Rebung Restaurant.

Our media friends arrived as early as 7pm at the restaurant and of course, they were greeted by none other than the Firefly girls.

Some familiar faces

Some new refreshing faces. As courtesy from Firefly, each of them was presented with our FOOTBALL JERSEYS in orange of course!

The night start off with welcome speech for our Emcee, Raja Sa’adi

Welcome speech by MD, Dato’ Eddy Leong.

Guests were pampered with a variety of Raya foods from lemang,satay,rendang to ayam masak merah and delicious desserts like sago gula melaka and pengat pisang.

The signature Firefly lucky draw began shortly after that.

Here are some guests who won the 1:100 ATR aircraft model! Congratulations!

And those who won the flight tickets.

It was a great and fun night for all of us.

Thank you!

She also told Bernama here yesterday that the community airline would be adding three ATR 72-500 aircraft by February next year to 10 from seven currently.

Meanwhile in a statement, Firefly managing director Datuk Eddy Leong said the airline would reinstate its Penang-Kuantan, Penang-Kuala Terengganu and Penang-Kota Bharu services in line with its expansion programme.

All-in fares from RM45 are being offered to celebrate the reinstatement.

“We envisage increased accessibility and convenient connectivity between the east and west coasts of Peninsular Malaysia and we are confident this will contribute positively towards boosting the local economy,” Leong said.

Firefly is also offering an all-in fare for the Subang-Langkawi, Subang-Kota Bharu, Subang-Kuala Terengganu routes from as low as RM45 one way and also Ipoh-Singapore and Subang-Singapore from RM75 one way.

The deals, in conjunction with the expansion programme, are now open for sale with a booking period from Sept 20 to Oct 17 this year for travel between Oct 31, 2010 and March 26, 2011. — Bernama

Fong Fei-Fei is a famous Taiwanese singer from the 1970s who is a Mandarin pop singer, but also has albums in Taiwanese too. She is well known of wearing a hat in all her performances and some even crown her as the “Hat Diva”. This Taiwan born artist had gain confidence and respect from all around the world with her recognition of the top ten famous artists in South East Asia. Her famous songs include “Applause Sounded” and she also acted in “The Flirting Scholar”.

For more information, please visit http://www.fireflyholiday.com/promotions/fong-fei-fei

Thank you.

Kota Kinabalu: Firefly, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Malaysian Airline System (MAS) Berhad, in collaboration with Tourism Selangor is sponsoring 30 bloggers from Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia to participate in a four-day My Selangor Story competition.

This all-expenses paid trip to explore Selangor started on Friday and will stretch to Sept 27. The sponsorship consists of logistics expenses for all 30 bloggers to explore Selangor exclusively during this period.

“Firefly is proud to participate in this community programme by sponsoring a total of 30 tickets for the participants and prizes to the winners of the competition,” said Firefly’s Head of Marketing and Communications, Angelina Fernandez.

“It is an honour to be associated with this event, especially to play a role in the growth of both, regional technology and social media.

“In this strategic partnership, Firefly is poised to be a driver to encourage local and international bloggers through this kind of healthy community engagement. This is in line with our marketing efforts in the area of social media.”

Angelina said they are sponsoring 10 flight tickets for the Indonesian participants on the Medan-Subang-Medan sector and another 10 flight tickets for the Singaporean participants on the Singapore-Subang-Singapore sector.

“Additionally, we are also sponsoring 10 flight tickets as prizes to the winners – four return tickets from Subang to Terengganu and six return tickets from Subang to Langkawi.”

She added that Firefly hopes to contribute significantly to the tourism industry in Selangor and Malaysia overall by meeting the rising passenger traffic demand from the dynamic growth region of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore by providing an extensive cross-border route network.

The event is also seen as a platform of information that would be able to educate the bloggers on the connections from Selangor (Subang) to all other destinations of Firefly within Malaysia.

She declared that the first half of this year has seen more than three million visitors to Selangor.

The 30 shortlisted bloggers will compete by churning out the best documentation of their trip – their own original version of their Selangor story.

They will be judged based on the following criteria – their creativity in presenting their adventures in Selangor, the popularity of their blogs in terms of traffic flow and comments, the entertainment value and quality of the audiovisual uploads of their activities and most importantly, the relevancy of their commentary on their Selangor travel experience.

During their trip, the bloggers will be required to create a daily three-minute video diary that documents their activities for the day, which will be uploaded on YouTube, and its link posted on the official My Selangor Story website.

Readers will vote for their favourite blog on the same website too, and the judges will then decide which blogger deserves to win the grand prize of RM2, 500 plus a return trip for two, to visit Selangor once again, and a Pentax camera worth RM1, 099, among others.

Prizes will also be awarded to the first runner-up and the second runner-up.

Other prizes include the most creative blog, the best write-up, the best video, the most interactive blog and the best photos.

Thanks to all your kind votes and support, I have been chosen as one of the 30 bloggers to be part of Stage 2 of My Selangor Story 2010 (MSS) – a 6 day blogging contest around beautiful Selangor. Spearheaded by Tourism Selangor to promote Selangor’s cultural diversity & rich tourism resource, MSS brings together 30 bloggers from Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia to an exciting, all-expenses paid luxury itinerary for these bloggers to blog about.

Starting today (23th Sept) until (28th Sept), I’ll be visiting many different places, meet many interesting people, do cool activities, eat great food and most importantly blog about my experience.

As the competition kicks-off, here is the first day highlights in a short 4 minutes preview video.

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Bloggers arrive in style for registration at Subang SkyPark where Kapitan Kopitiam kindly hosted a welcoming tea. For fellow bloggers from Indonesia, Singapore, JB and Penang, they were flown in with special treatment courtesy of Firefly with VIP treatment from check in to arrival. Firefly is the official airline of MSS and on top of providing the tickets for participants and prizes, the community airline provides a cool FY jersey for everyone.

Despite not being able to experience Firefly’s in-flight service (obviously does not make sense to fly from Shah Alam to Subang ), I was pleased to be greeted by Firefly’s hospitality shown by the crew during the welcoming tea.

Thank you Capt Anthony Kok, Ms Sofia Sani, Mr Al Haffeez, Mr Bryan See, Ms Harleny and the rest.

Leaving the airport with some new friends The photo below courtesy of James/Firefly.

Am I going to be the 1st to be eliminated? luckily MSS is not a reality show with daily elimination!

We checked in to our hotel for the first day in my home city Shah Alam! The capital of Selangor, a city full with many interesting sights and activities where immediately we were briefed about the competition.

Followed by briefing by Pentax. Pentax is the official camera for My Selangor Story providing each of the bloggers a camera each.

I was assigned this Point and Shoot Pentax Model Optio H90.

It makes sense to have a point and shoot as a secondary camera for a travel blogger. I love the fact that I can take a photo with this Pentax in less than 5 seconds, something my DSLr can’t do. Also I can sneak in this camera to places DSLr can’t go.

But the most important thing is this cute little baby can take video! So my blog post will include both videos and photos

Cameras…. Checked
Itinerary…. Checked
Laptop….. Checked

Time to hit the road!

1st Stop… i-City, No.1 Technology City.

If you have a Facebook, you probably have seen lots of photos of your friends with bright colourful trees with LED lights. Yes, that’s the landmark of i-City

But there is more to i-City than just being the City of Digital Lights. I-Berhad, the developer of i-City has , obtained approval from the Government to turn the city into a knowledge hub with infrastructure facilities such as broadband speed of 20Mbps, fibre-optic network and a full gen-set back-up power supply.
We can soon expect new breeds of borderless technopreneurs to be the product of i-City! In the meantime, this IS the place to be for free lightning-speed internet access!

The free internet access is through wi-fi hotspots around the area and does not involve plugging in your laptops to the digital trees

I-City hosted us for a Steamboat dinner right smack in the middle of the trees under the light of a full moon. There are plenty of choices for visitor to have good food while admiring the beauty of the lights.

Yummy Seafood Steamboat.

I spent an hour walking around the park admiring the couples browsing each other beauty of the lights.

Thaipusam Theme

Chinese New Year Theme

Hari Raya Theme

Xmas Theme

Digital Safari? Reminds me of Mimaland once upon a time.

A good opportunity to try out the cute Pentax. I love this Panoramic Mode available on this camera.

(Photo taken from Pentax Optio H90)

It’s funny that i-City is only 5 minutes drive from my house yet, this is my first time exploring this new attraction of Shah Alam. Definitely not going to be the last one Check out i-City at www.i-city.my

From the bright i-City, we made our way to a happening ‘Pasar Malam’, Shah Alam’s own Uptown.

Located in Section 23, Uptown Shah Alam is a one-stop shopping bazaar selling things that you can usually find in a street market.

From hawker’s food…..

….. to bundle clothing….

….. to pets,

….and everything else you can imagine, you can find it all here in Uptown Shah Alam. He he he

If you’re looking for entertainment, try out the reflexology, playstation, karaoke on stage (no comment) or just chill out over a cup of kopi and watch wrestling on TV…..classic!

I was quite impressed that the whole business model of Uptown Shah Alam is driven by a commercial entity with direct support from Entrepreneurial and Tourism bodies in Selangor. Learning from the ups and downs of Pasar Pagi and Pasar Muhibah, Uptown Shah Alam is currently run by Dataran Usahawan Sdn Bhd.
Briefing on Uptown Shah Alam by En Aizul Hisham, MD of DUSB.

Encik Irwan Shah, the appointed Ambassador of Uptown Shah Alam.

The place is a showcase of local entrepreneurs with some of them have been extremely successful.

Uptown Shah Alam is located at Kompleks Muhibbah, Jalan Taugeh 24/17 Persiaran Sultan, seksyen 24, 40300 Shah Alam. URL: www.uptownshahalam.com

Despite ending the day at 2am, it was an exciting beginning to a 6-day journey Check out my Facebook for more photos of Day 1.