Firefly to blink from budget to full-service under tie-up

News for today... no more tambang murah hehehhe..

Firefly to blink from budget to full-service under tie-up
By Lee Wei Lian
August 09, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9 — Travellers hoping for continued fare wars between Firefly and AirAsia will likely be disappointed after today’s announcement that the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) subsidiary will be redesigned as a full service regional carrier.
This was one of the outcomes of the strategic collaboration inked today between the government’s investment holding company Khazanah which controls MAS and unlisted Tune Air which controls AirAsia.

“Firefly’s resources would be refocused to launch a new regional full service airline operation,” said MAS chairman Tan Sri Mohd Nor Yusof.

The move renders AirAsia as Malaysia’s only major airline operating in the budget or value segment.

MAS had since last year used Firefly to compete against AirAsia, launching competitively priced flights from KL to East Malaysia and adopting the same low cost model such as charging for meals on board.