Firefly's third B738 will start its BKI (eastern) hub

[flee 5]

KOTA KINABALU, May 14 (Bernama) -- Firefly, a community airline subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines (MAS), took delivery of a third Boeing 737-800 aircraft to be stationed here, officially marking the start of Kota Kinabalu as its eastern hub.

 

Firefly currently flies daily between Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu with its two 737-800s, but with the arrival of the latest aircraft, there will be three aircraft flying six times daily to service the route.

 

Managing Director Datuk Eddy Leong, in welcoming the new aircraft at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport, said the launch of Kota Kinabalu as its eastern hub was part of the company's plan to strengthen its domestic network.

 

It also plans to soon launch Senai in Johor as its southern hub.

 

"For the eastern hub, our ultimate aim is to have one flight departing every hour from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur.

 

"Eventually, we will have three hubs; Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang (KLIA), Senai International Aiport in Johor and the Kota Kinabalu International Airport.

 

"By next week we will take delivery of our second Boeing 737-400, which will be based in Senai, and begin our Johor Bahru-Kuching route by May 19. By June 16, we will start the JB-Kota Kinabalu routes," he told reporters when met at the airport here Saturday.

 

Launched on April 3, 2007, Firefly initially started operating out of the Penang and Subang hubs before shifting its main operations to KLIA.

 

It connects various points within Malaysia, Southern Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia, aligning itself with the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) agenda.

 

To date, its fleet comprises 10 ATR 720-500, one B737-400 and three B737-800.

 

In line with the company's long term-plan to have a minimum of 30 B737-800s in five years, Leong said they would focus on increasing and developing the network of domestic destinations.

 

"We want to cover all major cities in Sabah and Sarawak, then move to Johor, Langkawi, Penang and Kota Bharu, before venturing international in the second-half of 2012," he added.

 

In terms of investment, Leong said there was not much capital expenditure involved for the airline used leased aircraft and tapped on engineering and ground handling facilities of MAS.

 

"Whatever money we save from all this is translated into lower fares, that's why we guarantee that we will be cheaper than any other competitor in Malaysia," he added.

[BC Tam 2]

..... that's why we guarantee that we will be cheaper than any other competitor in Malaysia

I'm confident I'm not alone in being keen to know what form and substance this 'guarantee' will take on

Edited May 14, 2011 by BC Tam

[Isaac 0]

"For the eastern hub, our ultimate aim is to have one flight departing every hour from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur.

Very ambitious of them

[JuliusWong 0]

Power to consumers~~~ hahas!! really interesting development in our Boleh-Land!!!

 

"For the eastern hub, our ultimate aim is to have one flight departing every hour from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur."

They are gunning to be next KUL-SIN, BKK-SIN, HKG-TPE....golden routes in Asia. B747 in near future?

[Waiping 12]

Very ambitious of them

 

Aha! If AK decides to combine 2 flights into 1 and uses the A330 I choose that! Quality over quantity, wide-body over narrow-body.

[flee 5]

I'm confident I'm not alone in being keen to know what form and substance this 'guarantee' will take on

I think the top line fare is the one that is guaranteed. The bottom line amount will be hard to match as both Subang and KLIA MTB impose higher airport taxes than LCCT.

 

That is another reason why TF has changed his mind about moving from T2 in BKI. With Firefly now operating there, he wants the advantage of low LCCT taxes to help him compete with FY.

[flee 5]

Aha! If AK decides to combine 2 flights into 1 and uses the A330 I choose that! Quality over quantity, wide-body over narrow-body.

In AK's case, using the D7 A333 is definitely an upgrade! Maybe they should consider that option when they have more A333s delivered next year. Perhaps the A333 could be used for flights when there is always a high demand for seats.

[Mohd Suhaimi Fariz 2]

Aha! If AK decides to combine 2 flights into 1 and uses the A330 I choose that! Quality over quantity, wide-body over narrow-body.

 

Actually, frequency is sexier than capacity, so I doubt they're going to do that.

[JingKai Seah 0]

which one is more profitable?

 

less frequency but more capacity or more frequency less capacity?

[Waiping 12]

Actually, frequency is sexier than capacity, so I doubt they're going to do that.

 

I think it's debatable. One flight every hour is good but in some cases I do prefer a more comfy ride than squeeze in a narrow body. Anyway you already have to allocate time to be at the airport early and the travelling time for BKI - KUL vv is at 2.5 hours. The 1 hour is not going to cost much for me. All in all probably half a day is gone. Now if both AK and MH depart around the same time - it happens all the time - would you choose a B737 or A330? or the other way round - an A320 or B777 for example. My choice would definitely the wide-body if the price is around the same.

[Isaac 0]

which one is more profitable?

 

less frequency but more capacity or more frequency less capacity?

Depends on the loads, i suppose. Using a wide-bodied aircraft will result in lower operating seat mile cost but it will still be a loss-making flight if the flight is always flying half full (unless the cargo division is a cash cow for the airline like CX).

 

 

I think it's debatable. One flight every hour is good but in some cases I do prefer a more comfy ride than squeeze in a narrow body. Anyway you already have to allocate time to be at the airport early and the travelling time for BKI - KUL vv is at 2.5 hours. The 1 hour is not going to cost much for me. All in all probably half a day is gone. Now if both AK and MH depart around the same time - it happens all the time - would you choose a B737 or A330? or the other way round - an A320 or B777 for example. My choice would definitely the wide-body if the price is around the same.

Same here man ! For one flight departing every one hour, it will definitely appeal to business travelers but for a leisure traveler like me, i always prefer to fly on a wide-bodied aircraft rather than a narrow-bodied aircraft. I really hope MAS one day will be at least like TG. TG keeps only a handful of narrow-bodied aircraft in their fleet and core domestic sectors are always operated by the wide-bodied aircraft. Hopefully as MAS transfers more domestic routes to its no-frills subsidiary, FY, MAS will also mainly operate wide-bodied aircraft and the Malaysia core domestic routes such as KUL/BKI, KUL/KCH and KUL/PEN will be operated by the wide-bodied aircraft

[Ikman Ikreza 0]

 

"We want to cover all major cities in Sabah and Sarawak, then move to Johor, Langkawi, Penang and Kota Bharu, before venturing international in the second-half of 2012," he added.

 

 

Glad to hear FY will consider KBR as one of their profitable route. Probably they will launch KBR-JHB, KBR-LGK or KBR-SIN in future?

[Mohd Suhaimi Fariz 2]

which one is more profitable?

 

less frequency but more capacity or more frequency less capacity?

 

Well, it's not as simple as that. That's where yield comes into play. You can have a packed plane but still lose money because most of the passenger paid rock bottom prices.

[Waiping 12]

Same here man ! For one flight departing every one hour, it will definitely appeal to business travelers but for a leisure traveler like me, i always prefer to fly on a wide-bodied aircraft rather than a narrow-bodied aircraft. I really hope MAS one day will be at least like TG. TG keeps only a handful of narrow-bodied aircraft in their fleet and core domestic sectors are always operated by the wide-bodied aircraft. Hopefully as MAS transfers more domestic routes to its no-frills subsidiary, FY, MAS will also mainly operate wide-bodied aircraft and the Malaysia core domestic routes such as KUL/BKI, KUL/KCH and KUL/PEN will be operated by the wide-bodied aircraft

 

Just for the sake of sharing. My ex-CEO from Japan cannot travel on narrow-body. There was a business trip in HKT a decade ago and since all the flights were on narrow-body B734, he asked his driver to drive all the way from KUL to HKT.

 

Also, I realized most of my superior would choose a wide-body if they can travel on business class. Maybe there is a difference beyond Ringgit and Sens.

[Samuel Chy 0]

isn't 9M-FFC already in service?

[Isaac 0]

Just for the sake of sharing. My ex-CEO from Japan cannot travel on narrow-body. There was a business trip in HKT a decade ago and since all the flights were on narrow-body B734, he asked his driver to drive all the way from KUL to HKT.

 

Also, I realized most of my superior would choose a wide-body if they can travel on business class. Maybe there is a difference beyond Ringgit and Sens.

He's spoilt by JL and NH

[BC Tam 2]

My ex-CEO from Japan cannot travel on narrow-body

Cannot or refuse to ?

Well, not much chance of him/her sneaking over to check up on your work here then

[KK Lee 5]

"For the eastern hub, our ultimate aim is to have one flight departing every hour from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur.

 

Means demand justify hourly BKI/KUL departure. Before FY, why MH didn’t explore this idea previously? If MH didn't have enough 734, why MH didn’t deploy A333 on BKI/KUL during peak hour?

[JuliusWong 0]

Means demand justify hourly BKI/KUL departure. Before FY, why MH didn’t explore this idea previously? If MH didn't have enough 734, why MH didn’t deploy A333 on BKI/KUL during peak hour?

 

MH used to be in a mess during early 90s till early 2000s...Don't say about now as I will be flamed by some MH hardcore fans in this forum.

 

MH used to have the largest fleet of B737 in Asia. At peak it has 74 B734s with different variants, nine B735 (chubby little one) and not to forget pre-Jala's times when A330 runs some domestic trunk flights. With so many B737 to play around, how did they do flight planning previously left us baffled.

 

Certainly they could have done hourly departure if the economic situation was right and there was demand for it but pre-AirAsia time, ticket was very expensive.

[prosibu1 0]

soon we will see FY depart time from KK/KUL is 6am,7am,8am way go to 10pm

then AK depart time is 530am,630am,730am way to 1030pm

then MAS have 4-5 times widebody flights

total will be 40 daily flights ....

 

then one of them not satisfy on 1 flight every hour

they double it...

make it 15minutes 1 flight to KK

80 daily flights

Edited May 17, 2011 by Wong Y. K.

[JuliusWong 0]

soon we will see FY depart time from KK/KUL is 6am,7am,8am way go to 10pm

then AK depart time is 530am,630am,730am way to 1030pm

then MAS have 4-5 times widebody flights

total will be 40 daily flights ....

 

then one of them not satisfy on 1 flight every hour

they double it...

make it 15minutes 1 flight to KK

80 daily flights

 

80 flights will just overkill the route.....

 

Assuming 80 flights per day (one per 15 minutes), seats available for

 

AK A320 180pax x 80= 14, 400

FY B738 189pax x 80= 15, 120

+

 

MH A332 229pax x 1= 229 (one A330 flight per day, assumption)

 

Total= 29, 749!!!!

 

Holy Molly Lord!!! almost 30K seats available per day!! O.O

Edited May 17, 2011 by JuliusWong

[Radzi 2]

If there is a demand, why not?

[BC Tam 2]

With 80 flights and 30k pax daily on BKI-KUL sector alone, current redeveloped BKI will likely be 'overstretched' again

So yeah, let's have another round of airport upgrading

Better still, relocate and build a spanking new facility elsewhere

It's only public money and the rakyat loves it when it's done in name of pembangunan (development)

[Waiping 12]

The problem with too much frequency is you will get very small aircraft doing the run. Lesser chance of wide-body upgrades.

[Ikman Ikreza 0]

The problem with too much frequency is you will get very small aircraft doing the run. Lesser chance of wide-body upgrades.

 

Agreed. If AK served A320, FY served B738 and MH served B777/A333 KUL-BKI at not much different fares, I'll take B777/A333.