Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) Managing Director Izham Ismail says the company will resume narrowbody jet flights from Kuala Lumpur Subang as early as June 2024 but declined to say whether those flights will be operated by Malaysia Airlines (MH, Kuala Lumpur International) or Firefly (FY, Penang).
"We can't reveal at the moment whether it'll be Malaysia Airlines or Firefly but we'll participate from the airport," he told Malaysia's Business Times. "Our current slots are only for ATR slots. We'll have to bid for the fresh slots" for jet operations.
Firefly currently flies from Subang to Alor Setar, Johor Bahru, Kota Bharu, Kuala Terengganu, Langkawi, Penang, and Singapore Seletar using its ATR72-500s, most of which are based at the airport. Malaysia Airlines does not operate any services from Subang.
Last year, ch-aviation reported that Malaysia Airlines was rethinking its narrowbody strategy following a decision to restart jet operations out of Subang. In early February 2023, the Malaysian government outlined a draft strategy that would see narrowbody passenger jets using the airport for the first time since 1998.
The government is redeveloping Kuala Lumpur's secondary airport, wanting it to handle eight million passengers by 2030 (up from the current 1.5 million) and take some of the pressure off KLIA. Stage one of the redevelopment will see the airport enlarged to handle jets up to B737 and A320 size, including five jet parking bays.
Last week, Izham said that whichever MAG airline starts jet operations at Subang, the focus will be on domestic and short-haul regional routes.
