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.