Well, my ex colleagues informed me that Firefly & MasWings are 2 seperate companies with individual AOC.
What it means is that even for the locals (applies to Expat too), they will not enjoy the same terms as their brothers in MAS, & definitely no chance to 'hop over' to MAS proper.
Firefly currently operate 2 Fokker 50 & operations are within Peninsular Malaysia with the base in Penang.They will soon have a new base in Subang (the old international airport) with a few more destination.
As for MasWings, it was an after thought by the Govt when MAS was instructed to take over, after the flying public in East Malaysia complained endlessly with the woeful service provided by FAX.The recent comedy of errors was the grounding of all FAX's F50 (all 7 of them!
) which totally screwed up the air transportation in Borneo!
Present MAS management was begged by the 2 state gov't to take over the ops ASAP, but they are playing it cool with the main requirement being the restoration of all aircraft (7 Fokker 50 & 5 Twin Otter) to the same serviceability condition as when MAS handed over to FAX.What this means are a lot of political posturing & FAX getting a free AOC for their International Operations (very crafty of Air Asia!
)
Be very careful when you deal with your T&C's with them as they have appointed new managers who are KPI'ed for their performance.