Lion Air


Lion Air is an Indonesian low-cost airline based in Jakarta. Lion Air is the country's largest privately run airline, the second largest low-cost airline in Southeast Asia and the largest airline in Indonesia. With Wings Air, Super Air Jet and Batik Air, Lion Group is the country's largest airline group. The airline operates domestic as well as international routes, which connects different destinations of Indonesia to Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, India, Japan and Saudi Arabia, as well as charter routes to mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Macau, with more than 630 flights per day.
The airline has repeatedly broken records for largest aircraft orders, such as its $24 billion order for 234 Airbus A320 jets. The airline's 2011 order of 230 Boeing 737 for $21.7 billion was the largest aircraft order received by Boeing at the time, and the agreement signing was witnessed by President of the United States, Barack Obama.
The airline signed an agreement with US-based aircraft manufacturer Boeing for fifty 737 MAX 10 passenger jets worth $6.24 billion in June 2017. The airline is Boeing's second-largest customer. It had once been criticised for poor operational management in areas such as scheduling and safety, although steps have been taken to improve its safety: on 16 June 2016, the European Union lifted the ban it had placed on Lion Air from flying into European airspace. In June 2018 it attained a positive safety rating following an ICAO audit.

History

The airline was established in October 1999 by Rusdi and Kusnan Kirana and started operations on 30 June 2000, when it began scheduled passenger services from Jakarta to Denpasar and Pontianak using a leased Boeing 737-200. It was the first low-cost airline in Indonesia. The fleet was quickly expanded with the wet-lease of five Yakovlev Yak-42Ds, two McDonnell Douglas MD-82s and two sub-leased Airbus A310-300s. Rapid growth enabled modernisation of the fleet with Boeing 737-300 and Boeing 737-400 aircraft. In 2003, a subsidiary airline was established, Wings Air, operating flights on lower density routes. Further subsidiaries were developed including Malindo Air in Malaysia in 2012, Thai Lion Air in Thailand in 2013 and domestically, Batik Air, a full-service subsidiary, also in 2013.
The airline is planning to join the International Air Transport Association and therefore hoping to become the second IATA Indonesian member carrier after Garuda Indonesia. Lion Air failed, in early 2011, the initial IATA assessments for membership due to safety concerns. Lion Air and Boeing pioneered the use of required navigation performance procedures in Indonesia, having successfully performed validation flights at the two terrain-challenged airports of Ambon and Manado.
From 19 July 2011, Lion Air grounded 13 aircraft due to sanctions caused by bad on-time performance. The transportation ministry recorded that Lion Air's OTP of 66.45 percent was the worst of six airlines in an assessment conducted from January to April 2011 at 24 airports nationwide. On the other hand, airlines using Jakarta airport faced considerable delays to their schedules due to runway congestion.
On 18 November 2011, the airline jointly announced with Boeing a record-setting order of 201 Boeing 737 MAX and 29 Boeing 737-900ER aircraft, setting the record for the world's biggest single order of 230 aircraft for a commercial airline worth $21.7 billion.
In January 2012, the Transportation Ministry said that it had sanctioned Lion Air because some of its pilots and crew members were found in recent months to be in possession of crystal methamphetamine. In late 2011, Muhammad Nasri and two other co-pilots were arrested at a party in Tangerang; in early 2012 a pilot was caught with crystal meth in Makassar.
On 4 February 2012, another Lion Air pilot was arrested following a positive urinalysis test for use of methamphetamine; he was scheduled to fly the Surabaya-Makassar-Balikpapan-Surabaya flight hours later. The licenses of the pilots and crew were revoked.
On 18 March 2013, Lion Air signed a contract to purchase 234 Airbus aircraft worth US$24 billion in France and witnessed directly by French President François Hollande. The ordered aircraft are types of A320 and A321.
Lion Air established a full service airline with the name Batik Air, which started operating in 2013 using 737-900ER. Lion Air also signed a commitment with Boeing to order five Boeing 787 Dreamliner for this airline, and this made Lion Air the first Indonesian airline to order this type since Garuda Indonesia canceled its order for the 10 Dreamliners in 2010, and is expected to be sent in 2015. The airline has also considered ordering wide-body aircraft Airbus A330, but chose to buy 787's.
On 31 July 2015, Lion Air officially left INACA due to a mismatch with other members.
In June 2016, Lion Group was removed from the list of blacklisted airlines to fly into the EU.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia, Lion Group suspended operations until 1 June. It suspended operations again on 5 June after finding few passengers could provide documents proving they were virus-free and have a business reason or family emergency requiring travel. In July 2020, Lion Group announced that the airline will lay off 2,600 contract workers as demand continues to sharply decline.

Destinations

, Lion Air flies to the following destinations:
CountryCityAirportNotesRef
IndonesiaAmbonPattimura Airport
IndonesiaBalikpapanSultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Sepinggan Airport
IndonesiaBandar LampungRadin Inten II Airport
IndonesiaBanda AcehSultan Iskandar Muda International Airport
IndonesiaBandungHusein Sastranegara Airport
IndonesiaBandungKertajati International Airport
IndonesiaBanjarmasinSyamsudin Noor International Airport
IndonesiaBanyuwangiBanyuwangi Airport
IndonesiaBatamHang Nadim International Airport
IndonesiaBengkuluFatmawati Soekarno Airport
IndonesiaBerauKalimarau Airport
IndonesiaBiakBiak Airport
IndonesiaDenpasarNgurah Rai International Airport
IndonesiaGorontaloJalaluddin Airport
IndonesiaJakartaSoekarno–Hatta International Airport
IndonesiaJambiSultan Thaha Syaifuddin Airport
IndonesiaJayapuraSentani International Airport
IndonesiaKendariHaluoleo Airport
IndonesiaKupangEl Tari Airport
IndonesiaLabuan BajoKomodo International Airport
IndonesiaLanggurKarel Sadsuitubun Airport
IndonesiaMakassarSultan Hasanuddin International Airport
IndonesiaMalangAbdul Rachman Saleh Airport
IndonesiaManadoSam Ratulangi International Airport
IndonesiaManokwariRendani Airport
IndonesiaMataramLombok International Airport
IndonesiaMedanKualanamu International Airport
IndonesiaMeraukeMerauke Airport
IndonesiaPadangMinangkabau International Airport
IndonesiaPalangkarayaTjilik Riwut Airport
IndonesiaPalembangSultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International Airport
IndonesiaPaluMutiara SIS Al-Jufrie Airport
IndonesiaPangkal PinangDepati Amir Airport
IndonesiaPekanbaruSultan Syarif Kasim II International Airport
IndonesiaPontianakSupadio Airport
IndonesiaSamarindaAji Pangeran Tumenggung Pranoto Airport
IndonesiaSemarangJenderal Achmad Yani International Airport
IndonesiaSorongDomine Eduard Osok Airport
IndonesiaSurabayaJuanda International Airport
IndonesiaSurakartaAdisumarmo Airport
IndonesiaTanjung PandanH.A.S. Hanandjoeddin International Airport
IndonesiaTanjung PinangRaja Haji Fisabilillah Airport
IndonesiaTarakanJuwata Airport
IndonesiaTernateSultan Babullah Airport
IndonesiaTimikaMozes Kilangin Airport
IndonesiaYogyakartaAdisutjipto Airport
IndonesiaYogyakartaYogyakarta International Airport
MalaysiaKuala LumpurKuala Lumpur International Airport
MalaysiaPenangPenang International Airport
SingaporeSingaporeChangi Airport
Saudi ArabiaJeddahKing Abdulaziz International Airport
Saudi ArabiaMedinaPrince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz International Airport