Firefly may lose $4.9m in revenue from Singapore suspension

Malaysia Airlines Group subsidiary Firefly could lose up to US$4.9m a month after it was forced to stop 20 daily flights to/from Singapore from Dec. 1, 2018 after the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) rejected its move from Changi to Seletar airport. “The exposure, the revenue lost from the suspension is MYR15m, so we’re looking at MYR15 to MYR20m revenue lost on a monthly basis,” MAG CEO Izham Ismail said. He added that the incident would affect MAG’s overall financial performance as a group. Firefly had sought for approvals from CAAM as early as October 2018, but the authority protested the implementation of Seletar’s ILS procedures, which it said would hinder the development of tall buildings in Pasir Gudang, Malaysia. In retaliation, Malaysia issued a restricted airspace permanent notice to airmen (NOTAM) over Pasir Gudang that was in place from Jan. 2, 2019. The Changi slot that Firefly initially operated on has already been reassigned to another airline, forcing Firefly to cancel its service to Singapore and refund passengers.<br/>