ALMOST 13,000 passengers will be affected by the suspension of all Firefly flights into Singapore from December 1, said chief executive officer of the budget airline, Ignatius Ong.

Firefly Airlines was originally scheduled to begin operating out of Singapore’s newly opened terminal at Seletar airport at the end of 2018, but Ong said the airline was told yesterday that relevant approvals and clearance had yet to be obtained.

He said the airline then decided to activate the suspension notice, to safeguard the interest of its customers.

“Based on what we have sold from December 1 to next year, we’re looking at about 12,000 to 13,000 passengers who will be affected,” Ong told The Malaysian Insight.

He said the suspension is indefinite as Singapore authorities have not given any indication of how long the delay will be, adding that Firefly “doesn’t have a Plan B” with regards to resuming its flights to Singapore.

Ong said he has approached Changi International Airport authorities to request that the airline continues operating out of the airport until the issue with Seletar is resolved, but was told the landing slots at Changi were no longer available as they had been given to another airline.

“It’s not up to us anymore,” said Ong.

“It’s dependent on both Malaysian and Singaporean regulators now.”

Ong said that passengers on the Subang to Singapore route, which is one of Firefly’s most popular routes, would be relocated to Malaysia Airlines flights leaving from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

“This depends on whether passengers want it. Some don’t want to take it because they don’t want to commute to KLIA,” he said.

“We will send an SMS to all passengers, and if anyone calls back, we will try and sort it out.

“This is a massive operation.”

He declined to reveal the amount of losses the airline is expected to incur from the suspension, saying only that it would “cost us a lot of revenue”.

Firefly was supposed to be the first commercial airline to commence operations at the new Seletar terminal, which is meant for turbo-prop aircraft and is designed to handle 700,000 passengers yearly.

Firefly, a subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines, is the only airline that currently operates turboprop flights between Changi Airport and Subang, Ipoh, as well as Kuantan. There are 20 flights daily. – AFP, November 22, 2018.