PHILIP See might only be holding the title of Firefly CEO for less than two weeks but already he is tasked with the responsibility of saving the airline from potential losses of hundreds of millions of ringgit amid a bilateral dispute between Malaysia and Singapore over airspace.

A month before he took over the airline, Firefly was forced to suspend its flights to Singapore – its second most popular destination after Penang – after the airline’s application to move to the republic’s Seletar airport was not approved by Malaysian aviation authorities, and its landing slots at Changi Airport given to other airlines.

The company was forced to refund passengers or redirect them to Malaysia Airlines flights, incurring costs of between RM15 million and RM20 million.

See, who was head of strategy and network at Malaysia Airlines at that time, said his immediate priority is to persuade Changi Airports Group (CAG) to return temporarily Firefly’s landing slots until the issue with Seletar is resolved.

This will allow Firefly to fly directly into Singapore until Malaysia and Singapore hammer out a solution to the dispute.

“We were debating, should we just wait until they sort out Seletar and we just start clean at Seletar?” said See.

“But there’s so much to be gained if we just establish connections again between us and Changi, so we decided to once again make the request for our landing slots,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

See said he is intent on resolving the issue via diplomacy, in the same vein in which Malaysia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Saifuddin Abdullah and his Singaporean counterpart Vivian Balakrishnan recently concluded their talks in the republic.

“The move from Changi to Seletar was contingent on the infrastructure and the new instrument-landing system (ILS) being ready.

“And because of the suspension of the ILS, the case then is that Seletar is not ready, so then we cannot facilitate the move to Seletar. Hence, we have a right to request to remain in Changi until there is a resolution to the ILS.”

See said while resolution could go the way of the legal pathway, “the tone set by the leadership has been one on diplomacy”.

“We also want to take a more diplomatic stance and really just politely ask Singapore airport to release temporarily the landing slots in Changi.”

See said the Subang-Seletar route “is a lifeline to Firefly in a fiercely competitive market and industry”, and that any further delay of the impasse is costing the airline revenue it can ill afford to lose.

“It would have been easier and safer to ride it out and wait for Seletar,” he said.

“But actually, there’s business to be made, connections to be done, so let’s make it work even if it’s complicated for us.”

Firefly was operating 20 daily turboprop flights – to and from Subang, Ipoh and Kuantan – at Changi airport prior to the suspension.

The once-ailing airline had only just managed to shave off its net loss from a whopping RM250 million in 2015 to RM36.65 million in 2017 and was reportedly making strong gains in the first three quarters of 2018 before it was hit by the Seletar news.

The airline is now waiting for a response from Singapore’s aviation authorities on its most recent request – sent a day after the ministers’ meeting – for a temporary return of its landing slots at Changi, See said.

“We are ready to deploy as early as January 21. It’s just getting the green light from CAG to give us the slots back.”

See is “cautiously hopeful” that the airline will be able to resume its flights into Singapore in time for the coming Lunar New Year when travel between the two countries peaks.

“What is very important in my mind is to make sure we build the connections back pre-Chinese New Year because that’s where it’s most valuable.

“It’s most symbolic also for the countries to connect communities at the best time possible.” – January 11, 2019.