Firefly, Airasia Likely To Get New Routes

17 April 2009

KUALA LUMPUR -- The decision by Malaysia and Singapore to further liberalise air travel between them is expected to benefit low-cost carriers -- Firefly and AirAsia -- when the new traffic rights take effect in June, sources said.

Under the new agreement, which was announced by the Singapore Transport Ministry on Wednesday, carriers from both countries would operate between Singapore and six new destinations in Malaysia and vice versa.

The destinations are Ipoh, Kuala Terengganu, Kuantan, Malacca, Sandakan, and Tawau apart from allowing more flights to Penang, Langkawi, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.

So far, the Malaysian government has not decided which airline would get to fly the new destinations.

Aviation observers said the existing two low-cost carriers -- Firefly and AirAsia -- were likely be given the routes.

"Firefly is likely to be given permission to fly the Singapore-Ipoh, Singapore-Terengganu, Singapore-Malacca and Singapore-Kuantan and existing Singapore-Penang routes which are already served by other airlines," industry sources told Bernama.

He said Firefly, however, would probably not get the Singapore-Tawau and Singapore-Sandakan routes as its turbo-prop ATR-72 aircraft were not suitable for long-distance flights.

The source said AirAsia would also likely to pick up most of the six routes.

However, he said, it would be up to the Malaysian government to decide on the frequencies and the airline or airlines to fly or share the new routes.

Both airlines had applied to the Transport Ministry for permission to fly the new routes, he said.

Industry sources said Firefly officials recently met with the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore.

It is believed that Firefly planned to use Changi Budget terminal as its base if it were offered the routes.

Wednesday's decision by the two countries to lift air restrictions was expected to benefit travellers and further boost the economies of both countries which started after several rounds of liberalisation last year.

In February, Tiger Airways, Jetstar Asia and AirAsia were given the green light to operate a limited number of Singapore-Kuala Lumpur services.

All the restrictions on the route would be lifted in December.

In November last year, the two governments also opened up the Singapore- Sabah and Sarawak sector, allowing flights from Singapore to Kuching, Miri and Kota Kinabalu and vice-versa.

The liberalisation of Singapore-Malaysia air links is part of a wider initiative to free the Association of South-East Asian Nations skies.

Transport ministers of the 10-member grouping had agreed on a long-term road map that will see the creation of a Asean single aviation market by 2015.

When that happens, all carriers of member states will be able to criss-cross the region's skies without any restrictions.