Friday, 20/08/10 – 10:41AM Filed in Blog by yangching | Views: 1110 | Comments: 0

Many of us love to holiday abroad, but have we really given due consideration to exploring our own backyard? Here’s your chance, in an all-expenses paid trip via the My Selangor Story competition where 30 bloggers from Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia explore Selangor for 4 days, thanks to Tourism Selangor and Horizon Communications.

To launch and officiate the My Selangor Story bloggers competiton, the Selangor Chairperson of Standing Committee of Tourism, Consumer Affairs, and Environment, YB Elizabeth Wong, said proudly, “The first half of this year has seen more than three million visitors which is very encouraging.” So hopefully, this competition will help promote Selangor as a destination for tourists.

These 30 shortlisted bloggers will compete with each other to churn out the best documentation of their trip – their own Selangor story. They will be judged according to creativity in presenting their adventures in Selangor; the popularity of their blogs in terms of traffic flow and comments; entertaining and quality audiovisual uploads of their exciting activities; and most importantly, the relevancy of their commentary on Selangor as based on their experiences.

As their trip progresses, the bloggers will be required to create a daily three-minute video diary that documents their activities for that day, which will be uploaded on YouTube, and its link posted on the official My Selangor Story website. Readers will be able to 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 and 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, Second Runner Up, and those with the Most Creative Blog, Best Write-Up, Best Video, Most Interactive Blog, and Best Photos, exclusively.

All 30 bloggers will be travelling in style, too. BMW has sponsored 30 cars for these bloggers to drive to their destinations (Kuala Selangor Nature Park, Genting Highlands, Sunway Lagoon, and Ampang Lookout Point, to name a few), Pentax will be providing high-quality cameras to record and photograph their experiences, and for bloggers in Singapore and Indonesia, they will be flown in courtesy of Firefly.

Interested? Then all you need to have is an active personal blog, be a resident of Malaysia, Singapore or Indonesia, and of course, have an interest in travelling and a taste for adventure! Get your game face on, and upload a 60-second video of yourself on YouTube that will convince the judging committee to pick you. Alternatively, you could send in a 300-word (no more) essay. Register by filling in the entry form on the My Selangor Story website, attach the link to the form, and wait for the call. The closing date for entries is 5 September 2010, and the 30 selected bloggers will be announced on 13 September 2010 with the travelling period to Selangor scheduled to take place from 24 – 27 September 2010.

Further, these 30 bloggers will be provided with items in the form of merchandise or vouchers from the official sponsors, which they will auction off on their blogs. All proceeds from the respective online auctions will go to charity organisations of Tourism Selangor’s choice.

Visit their official website at www.myselangorstory.com, or visit their Facebook fanpage by searching for “My Selangor Story”, and follow them on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MYselangorstory.

KUALA LUMPUR, August 24 – Firefly, Your Community Airline, announced today that it will increase 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 1 month from 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 that were previously suspended as a result of a network rationalization that was carried out in the 1st quarter of 2009 due to unfavourable economic conditions.

Additional frequencies:

SIN-SZB additional 1 flight daily resulting in 6 flights daily

SIN-IPH additional 3 flights (days 3,5,7) resulting in 2 flights daily

SZB-TGG additional 1 flight daily resulting in 3 flights daily

SZB-KBR additional 13 flights (2x on days 1,2,3,4,5,7 and 1x day 6) resulting in 7 flights daily

SZB-PEN additional 2 flights daily resulting in 10 flights daily

SZB-LGK additional 5 flights (days 1,2,3,4,6) resulting in 2 flights daily

PEN-MES additional 1 flight daily resulting in 2 flights daily

PEN-BTJ additional 4 flights (days 1,3,5,7) resulting in 1 flight daily

Routes reinstated:

PEN-KBR flights on days 1,3,5,7 resulting in 4 times a week

PEN-KUA flights on days 2,4,6 resulting in 3 times a week

PEN-TGG flights on days 2,4,6 resulting in 3 times a week

In a statement released today, Managing Director Dato’ Eddy Leong said that on top of the three aircraft, Firefly is negotiating for additional four ATR72-500s to be delivered in 2011/12 to fuel its expansion into more secondary routes.

Firefly received its first ATR72-500 aircraft on the 11 August 2008 and has since been operating with 7 brand new ATR72-500s serving 19 destinations from its hubs in Subang and Penang.  Firefly’s routes cover both business and leisure destinations in Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatera and Thailand.  It boasts a “One Destination Four Countries” point-to-point connectivity offering incredible values at low fares.

With the convenience of flying out of Subang, Firefly also offers incredible value with low fares, that includes 20kg check-in baggage allowance, assigned seating and in-flight refreshment.

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airlines (MAS) expects between RM60 million and RM100 million in annual revenue contribution from the move to make the Kota Kinabalu International Airport a second hub.

Its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Tengku Datuk Azmil Zahruddin, said the geographical location of Kota Kinabalu made it a natural gateway to Borneo for traffic from China, Taiwan, North Asia, Indonesia and Autralia.

“There is room for growth. The airport is capable of handling 12 million passengers annually,” he told reporters announcing the airline’s second-quarter financial results here, Monday.

He said new routes will be added from the Kota Kinabalu International Airport in order to match capacity and demand for better economics.

Tengku Azmil said there will be more opportunities to increase yield as Malaysia Airlines started to receive new planes.

The airline has ordered up to 55 B737-800s and 25 A330-300s, with a total of three B737-800s to be received in 2010, comprising one each in October, November and December.

“We have also completed our discussions with Airbus and will be taking the six A380s. The first will be delivered in April 2012,” he said.

Tengku Azmil said MASkargo will also increase its fleet size from five to seven by September to cope with the surge in air freight demand.

The additional aircraft will allow MASkargo to offer new twice weekly services into New York via Amsterdam beginning the second week of September, he said.

To support MASkargo’s expansion plans, the first two A330-200F will be received in September and November 2011.

“Discussions are also underway to get the other two freighters delivered by the first half of 2012,” he said, adding that MASkargo had earlier placed a firm order for two A380-200F with option for another two.

As for Firefly, Tengku Azmil said: “We are ordering three additional ATRs. Currently, Firefly has seven ATRs. The three ATRs will be delivered by end of this year.”

On compensation for the delayed A380s, he said: “I would still prefer to get the aircraft rather than the compensation. The cost of delay is higher than the compensation.”

Malaysia Airlines has chosen four financial institutions to finance its 14 B737-800 aircraft which will be received from 2010 to 2011.

Tengku Azmil said the airline was currently in final discussion with few potential lenders for its A330 aircraft which will be delivered from 2011 to 2012.-Bernama

http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=74085