Malaysia’s Firefly plans third hub at Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Firefly is planning to expand its operations to include international charters from a third hub at Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Malaysia’s Sabah state in northern Borneo, once borders reopen following COVID-19, says Chief Executive Officer, Philip See.

Briefing media and travel agents on the resumption of 737-800 operations out of Penang on April 11, he said Firefly would start with international charters out of Kota Kinabalu and add routes and capacity over time.

See said Firefly would look to take over some of the international routes previously operated by MAS, such as Tokyo, Taipei Taoyuan, and South Korea. Over a period of time, we will add a lot more international routes and work with travel agents to introduce a whole series of charter services and group bookings,” he said. However, international expansion from Kota Kinabalu would likely only commence next year pending the reopening of Eastern Asia following COVID-19. “We are monitoring the recovery and reopening very closely,” he added.

Firefly is currently based at Kuala Lumpur Subang and Penang. It operates domestic services with a fleet of twelve ATR72-500s on lease from Showa Leasing, of which eight are in active service, according to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module. The no-frills airline is a subsidiary of the Malaysia Aviation Group, along with its sister carriers Malaysia Airlines (MH, Kuala Lumpur Int’l) (MAS) and MASwings (MY, Kota Kinabalu), and will shortly resume B737-800 operations.

Its current route network out of Kuala Lumpur includes Alor Setar, Johor Bahru, Kota Bharu, Kuala Terengganu, Langkawi, and Penang; while it serves Kota Bharu, Kuala Lumpur, and Langkawi from Penang.