MASwings and Firefly Take Delivery of New ATR 72-500s

Released on Friday, August 29, 2008

Malaysia Airlines' subsidiaries MASwings and Firefly, and ATR, celebrated today the delivery of the first ATR 72-500s of MASwings and the second ATR 72-500 of Firefly in a joint ceremony held at the ATR Final Assembly Line in Toulouse. Attending the ceremony were Datuk Michael Manyin, Urban Development & Tourism Minister of Sarawak, Dr. Amin Khan, Managing Director of MASwings, Mr. Eddy Leong, Managing Director of Firefly, along with Mr. Stéphane Mayer, ATR CEO, and representatives of French and Italian Authorities.

Firefly took delivery earlier in August of its first ATR aircraft, which made its inaugural flight on August 19th. The MASwings and Firefly aircraft are the first ATRs to operate in Malaysia.

Commenting on the delivery, Datuk Michael Manyin underlined "the importance of introducing in Malaysia aircraft complying with the highest standards of performance, comfort and safety in today's regional aviation market". And he further added: "The ATR aircraft will become a main player in the development of the tourism and the business activities in our country, while allowing both MASwings and Firefly to achieve the lowest operating costs in short-haul routes".

Dr. Amin Khan stated: "The preservation of the environment in Borneo is one of our major concerns. With our ATR 72-500s, we will be strongly contributing to the development of the sustainable tourism in East Malaysia". He added: "The '-500 series' is well reputed worldwide for its impressive safety record and is also a very reliable aircraft, featuring the lowest cost per passenger and the lowest levels of noise and vibrations inside the cabin". He summed up: " With the ATRs, we will consolidate our young carrier with very safe and environment-friendly aircraft".

Eddy Leong declared: "With our brand new ATR 72-500s we will start replacing our Fokker 50 fleet and providing our passengers with the most advanced technology and the most trendy and comfortable passenger environment in the market. Our new fleet of ATRs will allow us to face the growth of our regional operations and to optimize costs with aircraft featuring unrivalled performance in short-haul routes".

Stéphane Mayer underlined the importance of Malaysia in the recent success of ATR and noted that "with the delivery of these aircraft, we are entering a new market with strong growth potential, while strengthening our position as the leader in the turboprop market in Asia". And he further added: "We are also delighted at the further developments for the ATR fleet in the region. Our partnership includes the establishment with Malaysia Airlines, a worldwide known and respected major carrier, of a joint ATR Training Center at the Kuala Lumpur Subang airport. In addition, we are pleased of the settlement in Malaysia of a new MRO Center dedicated to ATR aircraft."

Since the beginning of the programme, ATR has sold 958 aircraft (419 ATR 42s and 539 ATR 72s) and has delivered 788 (401 ATR 42s and 387 ATR 72s), thus posting a current backlog of 170 aircraft.