First Of Type To Be Operated In Malaysia

Malaysia Airlines subsidiaries MASwings and Firefly celebrated the delivery of the first ATR 72-500 for 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 19. 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. 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."

"The preservation of the environment in Borneo is one of our major concerns," Dr. Amin Khan said. "With our ATR 72-500s, we will be strongly contributing to the development of the sustainable tourism in East Malaysia... 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."

The ATR 42-500 and larger ATR 72-500 sport six-blade propellers, which provide low noise levels. All ATR models are compliant with noise regulations and have a large margin with regard to Chapter IV (ICAO) noise regulations, effective January 1, 2006.

Since the beginning of the program, 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.

FMI: www.atr-aircraft.com, www.maswings.com.my/