Malaysia's first community airline Firefly was officially launched on Monday as its two aircraft landed smoothly in northern Malaysia.

Two Fokker Friendship aircraft, which carried passengers including Malaysian Tourism Minister Adnan Tengku Mansor and invited guests, took off from Subang Airport near here and landed at Pinang International Airport Monday morning.

Eddy Leong Chin Tung, managing director of Firefly, a wholly owned subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines, said at the launch ceremony in Pinang that Firefly would operate as Malaysia's first community airline and capture a new market segment by serving destinations which are not financially viable for Malaysia Airlines.

Malaysia Airlines' Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Idris Jala, who is also the chairman of the new airline, said that this development will complement Malaysia Airlines' five- year network strategy to capitalize on high growth travel regions through a more connected network.

Firefly will focus on developing the northern Malaysia Peninsular routes as well as those to the neighboring regions from its base in Pinang, he said.

According to Malaysia Airlines, Firefly will start commercial operations on Tuesday between Pinang and the Malaysian cities of Langkawi, Kota Bahru, Kuantan and Kuala Trengganu.

In addition, the airline will offer daily services between Pinang and the two cities of Phuket and Koh Samui in Thailand effective beginning on April 13.

Source: Xinhua