Airspace spat costing Firefly nearly USD5 million a month
Malaysian regional carrier Firefly says it will lose up to RM20 million (US$4.9 million) a month due to the ongoing impasse between Malaysia and Singapore over airspace rights.
Firefly was forced to suspend flights into Singapore after all turboprop flights were to be relocated from Changi to the smaller Seletar Airport near the Johor Strait.
However that didn’t happen after Malaysia objected to Singapore’s Instrument Landing System (ILS) procedures, which it said effectively gives Singapore management of some of Malaysian airspace.
"The exposure, the revenue lost is RM15 million, so we’re looking at RM15 million to RM20 million revenue lost on a monthly basis. Firefly has been doing well over the past three years, so this is a huge dent to the group. We need a resolution very quickly," said Malaysia Airlines Group chief executive Izham Ismail.
Before the suspension Firefly was operating up to 20 daily turboprop flights from Subang, Ipoh and Kuantan to Changi Airport.
Firefly was forced to suspend services as it was not able to get approval from Malaysia’s civil aviation regulator to operate at Seletar Airport due to the airspace issue.
Firefly was due to be the first scheduled commercial airline operating at Seletar.
Malaysia established a permanent restricted area over the disputed airspace at Pasir Gudang last month.
However, that has now been suspended so the two countries can discuss a way forward.
In the meantime, Firefly wants the temporary reuse of landing slots at Changi Airport so it can resume flights.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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