By Kamarul Yunus

GLENEAGLES Hospital Kuala Lumpur, a private healthcare service provider, has roped in community airline Firefly and travel agent Holiday Tours and Travel Sdn Bhd to tap the anticipated influx of Singaporeans seeking medical treatment in Malaysia.

This follows the recent announcement of a new ruling by the Singaporean government that its provident fund contribution can be used for medical treatment abroad.

Gleneagles chief executive officer Amir Firdaus Abdullah said the introduction of the new package offered by Gleneagles and its partners, Firefly and Holiday Tours will help increase the number of patients from Singapore to its hospital in Jalan Ampang.

“Currently, we receive between 20 and 30 patients from Singapore a month,” he told a media conference in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

He said Gleneagles expects between 10 per cent and 15 per cent of its total number of patients for this year to comprise expatriates, especially Singaporeans.

“Currently, they (foreigners) contribute about 15 per cent to Gleneagles’ annual revenue,” he said.

Gleneagles yesterday signed a partnership agreement with Firefly and Holiday Tours to provide cost savings and coordinated medical travel for Singaporeans seeking treatment at the hospital.

On February 12, the Singapore Health Ministry had said that from March 1, its residents can use their Medisave, which is equivalent to Malaysia’s Account 2 in the Employees Provident Fund, to help pay for their hospitalisation abroad.

Gleneagles is among the 12 private healthcare providers in Malaysia that have been approved by Singapore’s Ministry of Health to provide treatment to its citizens and permanent residents.

To further enhance its treatment services, Amir said Gleneagles will also be signing a memorandum of understanding with Macquarie University, Australia to enable renowned surgeon, Dr Michael Morgan to work exclusively with it to provide high-end neorosurgical procedures.

Kuala Lumpur, 11 Feb 2010: Firefly Holiday -Malaysia’s 1^st online travel portal was officially launched today by Malaysia Airlines Senior General Manager of Sales and Marketing Dato’ Bernard Francis. Marking as Malaysia’s first full-fledged travel portal, it offers worldwide holiday packages with a Do-It-Yourself feature.

 “Malaysia Airlines practices open storefront concept, and we are proud to have Firefly Holiday – our very own subsidiary in providing an innovative approach in flight and holiday bookings.  Customers experience has always been our top most priority, this new innovation will offer our customers the convenience of hassle free bookings,” said Bernard Francis at the launch event today.

 The portal launch was attended by the media, online travel portals and also travel bloggers at the Boulevard Hotel, Mid Valley Kuala Lumpur.

“Firefly Holiday has come a long way since its inception. It started with offering packages only to Firefly destinations about two years ago and now it is fully equipped to offer holiday packages to more than 100 Malaysia Airlines worldwide destinations. This will certainly spur positive growth towards Malaysia Airlines’ passengers reach. We are very confident that with Firefly Holiday’s new innovative distribution method of Malaysia Airlines flights, inbound travellers into Malaysia will also see a significant growth,” said Bernard Francis.

“The ability to offer customers the option to book MAS flights on Firefly Holiday will expand both Malaysia Airlines and Firefly’s reach to millions of visitors worldwide. Customers will now have a variety of over 50,000 hotels to select from, with reliable and efficient ground and tour arrangements to plan a hassle-free holiday,” added Bernard.

In a Press Conference today, Ms Lau Yin May, Head of Firefly Holiday said that customers are given full flexibility to customize and select their preferred flight timings, hotels and complement their holiday with optional transfers and tours. It has literally a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) capability to suit everybody’s holiday needs.  Firefly Holiday has proven to be convenient and reliable, offering value-for-money packages since it was set up two years ago.

 “With the offerings of Malaysia Airlines destinations worldwide, we are looking at our bookings to be more than double this year.  We will now aggressively tap markets that were not within our service offerings radar then. It is time for Firefly Holiday to go International,” she added.

FIREFLY HOLIDAY

Firefly Holiday, a wholly owned subsidiary of FlyFirefly Sdn Bhd, is an online travel portal offering worldwide packages which are accessible anytime, anywhere, 24hrs, 7 days a week at a click at www.fireflyholiday.com. Hassle-free, easy and fast, in just 4 simple steps a holiday reservation complete with return flights, accommodation, transfers and tours is done with an immediate online confirmation.  

For booking details, please visit

www.fireflyholiday.com.