Firefly to Open Base at Melaka

Posted 02/08/2011

Malaysian community carrier Firefly has entered into a commercial collaboration with regional operator Melaka Air to establish a base in the city and launch flights from Melaka International Airport (formerly Batu Berendam) to destinations in Indonesia and Malaysia.  The airline will initially base a single ATR 72-500 there to begin flights to Batam, Pekanbaru and Medan in Indonesia and the domestic destinations of Penang and Kota Bahru.

“We had intended to start our operations in Melaka earlier but we had to wait for the expansion of our aircraft fleet,” said Eddy Leong, Managing Director, Firefly.  “Now we are in a position to support the Melaka Chief Minister’s vision of expanding tourism accessibility into the state.

The expansion has been made possible by the arrival of an eleventh and twelfth ATR 72-500 at the start of November.  One of these turboprops will be stationed at Melaka and will be supported by a full Firefly ground operation.  “If this collaboration with Melaka Air proves to be successful, we have the capability to also offer in the future our Boeing jet aircraft which has a larger seat capacity of 189,” added Eddy Leong.

Firefly is to work closely with the local tourism authority to help market the new routes and to bring passengers to the historic city of Melaka.  According to Eddy Leong different market segments will be targeted on each of the routes and the airline will work to potentially establish Melaka alongside Penang, a popular resort destination, as a two-centre holiday option.  For the Kota Bharu route the wider, business, leisure and VFR market will be the focus, while the carrier will look to the health tourism and business events segments for the flights from Indonesia.

Melaka is already proving a popular destination for medical tourists from Indonesia and all three private hospitals in the city reportedly offering regular free shuttle bus services to and from the airport.  Wings Air currently offers the only scheduled link to Melaka with a daily service from Pekanbaru, while Riau Airlines plans to offer direct links after resuming operations earlier this year.

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