From: The Malaysian Reserve

THE state government of Perak signed a five-year strategic collaboration with Firefly yesterday to promote tourism and foreign investment in the state.

 The partnership is focused on achieving key objectives, one of which is to enable international air connection between Lapangan Terbang Sultan Azlan Shah (LTSAS) in Ipoh and Changi International Airport in Singapore.

 It also aimed to promote Perak as a destination for mass and premium tourism as well as encourage new investment and business developments which will spur economic development in the state.

At the signing ceremony in Ipoh, the state government of Perak was represented by State Secretary Datuk Dr Abdul Rahman Hashim while Firefly managing director Datuk Eddy Leong signed on behalf of the airline. The signing was witnessed by the Menteri Besar of Perak, Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir.

Meanwhile, Dr Abdul Rahman said the state government will spend RM2.4 million for Firefly to jointly market and promote tourism in the state for the first year while another RM1.8 million has been allocated for the second year.

Firefly has been marketing Perak state aggressively via the code-share arrangement with MAS in the international market, he added.

BERLIN, 10 March 2010: Firefly Holiday, a subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines was officially launched today by the honorable Tourism Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen, upon officiating the opening of the Malaysian booth at ITB, dubbed the Malaysian Pavilion. Marking as Malaysia’s first full-fledged travel portal, it offers worldwide holiday packages with a Do-It-Yourself feature.

 “Firefly Holiday is ideal for the general traveler as it offers convenience from time of booking to point of arrival at the preferred destination. For tour operators, it provides one touch point for all in one ground arrangements. In essence, they are the online local partner hence, the convenience extends not only to the travelers, but also to its agents,” said the Minister.

She further notes, “When visitors are already in Malaysia, they can use the Firefly services to get around the country, and even the region if they want to. This further enhances the ‘One destination, four countries’ concept, where Malaysia serves as a touch base for visitors before going about the Asian region”.

Since its inception in April 2008, Firefly Holiday has evolved from offering Malaysian and regional packages only, to more than 100 Malaysia Airlines worldwide destinations via its international holiday packages.

Managing Director of Firefly, Dato’ Eddy Leong said, “We will be working aggressively with travel agents here in ITB to partner with us and market Firefly Holiday to their customers. We are certain that customers will recognize the uniqueness of our services when in Malaysia and this in turn, is one selling point we will share with the agents.”

A variety of packages are offered for travel into Malaysia from specific destination points for instance Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and United Kingdom. Travelers can then opt for post travel within Malaysia such as islands of Langkawi and Terengganu, and tropical forests of East Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak.

 Since the commencement of its services into Singapore in July 2009, Firefly has since connected travelers from Singapore into various points of Malaysia namely Kuala Lumpur via Subang, Terengganu, Ipoh (Perak) and Kuantan (Pahang). This has further enhanced the various package offerings for visitors from the neighboring country.

 Firefly Holiday International Packages compliments the services offered by Firefly due to the existing code share agreement with Malaysia Airlines, which enables the travel portal to pair up its ground packages with international flights.

Launched in late 2008, Firefly plays the role as the operating carrier with Malaysia Airlines as the marketing carrier in their code share relation. Listed under the MH 9000 series, Firefly code share flights reach a wider distribution channel via Malaysia Airlines. Tickets can be purchased in conjunction with Malaysia Airlines or with other airlines where there is an existing commercial agreement.

For inquiries please email Alita Suraya at alita@malaysiaairlines.com or call +6016

3414 700 or +603 7840 4899

by The Malaysian Reserve

FLYFIREFLY Sdn Bhd (Firefly), Malaysian Airline System Bhd’s (MAS’s) low-cost carrier unit, is targeting a marked increase in sales numbers at the upcoming Matta Fair 2010 from previous years’ figures on the back of international holiday packages and other attractive offers, its marketing and communications head Angelina C Fernandez said. The Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) Fair is the country’s premier travel and tourism fair. The fair, which is slated to be held at the Putra World Trade Centre on March 12-14, is expected to attract close to 80,000 visitors this year.

Speaking at a press conference in Subang, Selangor, yesterday, Fernandez said the Matta Fairs were strong contributors to Firefly’s revenue and, since the firm started offering international packages via a tie-up with its parent firm, she expected a three times fold increase in sales from previous years’ contributions. “Last year, we did sales of more than half a million (at Matta Fair 2009) and that was only with Firefly destinations. About 1.5 million sales?

 Yes,” she added. Fernandez said the strength of Firefly’s offerings via its Firefly Holiday online travel portal were strong selling points for the brand. “Our competitive edge over our competitors is evident in the combination of destinations that we have, which is Malaysia Airlines, MasWings and Firefly,” she said. “That says it all, you have connectivity with all three carriers. You can fly to destinations like Singapore and from there fly off to destinations like Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Terengganu or Ipoh.

 Furthermore, at last year’s Matta, our Singapore flights were not available yet and today we’re flying five times a day,” she added.Launched in 2007, Mas-Wings is another MAS subsidiary and it caters to the air travel needs of East Malaysians. Asked on why Firefly was expected to hit the 1.5 million sales target, Firefly Holidays head Lau Yin May said at Matta Fair 2009, the low cost carrier only offered domestic and regional destinations and packages like Thailand and Indonesia.

“With Firefly Holidays going international, as of last month, we’re now talking about packages to about 100 destinations worldwide. That three-times fold target is us being very prudent, and we could even meet or exceed this target,” she added. When asked on whether new holiday packages and destinations would be added this year, given that Firefly Holidays already had links with about 50,000 hotels, Lau said no and yes.

“In terms of Firefly, not at the fair and, at this point, Firefly is quite stable in terms of the destinations that we have currently. In terms of Firefly Holidays, the new destinations will be MAS destinations. As long as MAS flys there, we will have packages there.

Take London, UK, for example, our website has 33 pages of hotels and each page lists ten hotels,” she added. The travel packages for Firefly packages available at Matta Fair 2010 are valid until Oct 2010 while its MAS packages are open until 2011.The firm is also offering prizes totalling RM500,000, which include MAS tickets to Los Angeles, Istanbul and Hong Kong as well as Blackberry phones from telecommunications

provider Maxis.