SINGAPORE - Firefly will begin services from Kota Baru and Alor Setar to Singapore from Oct 25 and 27 respectively.

This comes after five new routes are opened, in stages, between Malaysia and Singapore.

Managing director Eddy Leong said following the commencement of flights between Subang and Singapore on Wednesday, the airline would also start operating between Ipoh and Singapore on July 12.

The other services are Kuala Terengganu-Singapore (July 14), Kuantan-Singapore (July 22) and Malacca-Singapore (Sept 1).

Leong said: "The Subang-Singapore is very much targeted at the business community while the other destinations are mainly for leisure travellers."

He said the routes offered were popular tourists destinations, adding that the airline would continue to concentrate on areas which were not well-served by other carriers.

"We are focused on Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra and southern Thailand," he said.

Singapore, he said, was an important hub as it received 36 million tourists a year.

Tourism Malaysia acting director-general Datuk Amirrudin Abu said the additional routes could ease land traffic congestion as they catered to different locations in the country.

Changi Airport Group chief executive officer Lee Seow Hiang said the new flights would add to the rapidly growing air travel market between the two countries.

"Between January and May, there was almost 1.3 million passenger movement between the two countries," he said, adding that this was a 20% growth compared to the same period last year.

--The Star/ANN