Singapore Seletar airport is on track to open a new passenger terminal by the end of 2018, allowing Malaysia's Firefly (FY, Penang) to relocate its turboprop services from Singapore Changi, Changi Airport Group has said in a press release.
The secondary civilian airport serving Singapore has not seen any scheduled services since Berjaya Air (J8, Kuala Lumpur Subang) relocated to Changi in 2010. Seletar is currently used for general aviation, flight training, and charter operations. It also hosts maintenance bases and is home to a Rolls-Royce assembly plant.
As part of a plan to relieve congestion at the main Singaporean hub, Seletar is getting a new SGD80 million dollar (USD59.1 million) passenger terminal able to handle 700,000 passengers per annum.
At first, Firefly will be the only scheduled operator at Seletar. The Malaysian regional specialist, a unit of Malaysia Airlines, will fully relocate from Changi by the end of 2018. According to the ch-aviation capacity module, it currently operates a total of 67 weekly flights to Singapore, including 46 from Kuala Lumpur Subang, 14 from Ipoh, and seven from Kuantan. The airline currently operates twelve ATR72-500 aircraft.
Firefly is currently the only airline deploying turboprop aircraft to Singapore Changi. The airport is nearing its current capacity limit but will get a third runway by 2020.
Singapore's third airport, Singapore Paya Lebar, is a military-only facility that however also hosts a ST Aerospace MRO base.
