Lion Air <!--Please refrain from adding the Indonesian name to this section, as it have already been clearly specified in the Infobox. Reiterating the native name in the Lede is unnecessary and redundant.--> 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 (after AirAsia) 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,

The airline has repeatedly broken records for largest aircraft orders, such as its $24 billion order for 234 Airbus A320 jets.

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 (after US-based Southwest Airlines). 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

thumb|A [[Yakovlev Yak-42|Yakovlev Yak-42D, the first aircraft of Lion Air, landing in Singapore]]

thumb|A Lion Air [[McDonnell Douglas MD-82 at Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport]]

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 (IATA) 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 (RNP) 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 (OTP). 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.

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.

Lion Air’s loyalty scheme is centered on CabinClub, a platform-driven rewards program that emphasizes booking activity and transactional benefits rather than conventional frequent flyer miles or tier status.

Destinations

, Lion Air flies (or has flown) to the following destinations:

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|Mataram||Lombok International Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

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|Medan||Kualanamu International Airport||||align=center|

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|Merauke||Mopah Airport|| align="center" | ||align=center|

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|Padang||Minangkabau International Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

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|Palangkaraya||Tjilik Riwut Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

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|Palembang||Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International Airport||||align=center|

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|Palu||Mutiara SIS Al-Jufrie International Airport|| align="center" | ||align=center|

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|Pangkal Pinang||Depati Amir Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

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|Pekanbaru||Sultan Syarif Kasim II International Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

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|Pontianak||Supadio International Airport|| align="center" | ||align=center|

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|Samarinda||Aji Pangeran Tumenggung Pranoto International Airport||||align=center|

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|Semarang||Jenderal Ahmad Yani International Airport|| align="center" | ||align=center|

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|Sorong||Domine Eduard Osok Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

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|Surabaya||Juanda International Airport||||align=center|

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|Surakarta||Adisoemarmo International Airport|| align="center" | ||align=center|

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|Tanjung Pandan||H.A.S. Hanandjoeddin International Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

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|Tanjung Pinang||Raja Haji Fisabilillah Airport||||align=center|

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|Tarakan||Juwata Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

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|Ternate||Sultan Babullah Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

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|Timika||Mozes Kilangin Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

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|rowspan="2"|Yogyakarta||Adisutjipto Airport||||align=center|

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|Yogyakarta International Airport||||align=center|

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|rowspan="2"|Malaysia||Kuala Lumpur||Kuala Lumpur International Airport||||align=center|

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|Penang||Penang International Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

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|Singapore||Singapore||Changi Airport||||align=center|

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|rowspan="2"|Saudi Arabia||Jeddah||King Abdulaziz International Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

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|Medina||Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz International Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

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|}

Codeshare and interline agreements

Lion Air has codeshare agreements and interline agreements with the following airlines:

Codeshare

  • Jeju Air

Interline

  • Batik Air
  • Batik Air Malaysia
  • Hahn Air
  • Thai Lion Air
  • Wings Air

Fleet

thumb|A [[Boeing 737-800 at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport]]

The Boeing customer code for Lion Air is GP, which appears in the designation of its older Boeing aircraft as an infix, such as 737-8GP and 737-9GPER.

Current fleet

thumb|A [[Boeing 737-900ER at Ngurah Rai International Airport]]

thumb|A [[Boeing 737-900ER in '50th 737-900ER built' livery, at Changi Airport]]

thumb|An [[Airbus A330-300 at Ngurah Rai Airport]]

, Lion Air operates the following aircraft:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:0.5em auto; text-align:center"

|+ Lion Air fleet

!Aircraft

!In service

!Orders

!Passengers

!Notes

|-

| rowspan="2" |

|4

| rowspan="2" |&mdash;

|440

| rowspan="2" |

|-

|2

|436

|-

|

|8

|&mdash;

|436

|

|-

|

|22

|&mdash;

|189

|

|-

| rowspan="2" |

|54

| rowspan="2" |&mdash;

|215

| rowspan="2" |Launch customer.<br>2 aircraft are from Sriwijaya Air.

|-

|1

|213

|-

|

|4

|187

|221

|Order consisted of both the MAX 8 and 9 variants.<br> Launch customer for the MAX 9 variant.<br> All of Lion Air's MAX 8s have been transferred to Batik Air Malaysia.

|-

|

|&mdash;

|50

|TBA

|

|-

!Total

!99

!237

!colspan=3|

|}

Fleet development and orders

thumb|Lion Air was the launch customer of the 737-900ER, seen here on the type's first flight

Lion Air was the launch customer for the largest variant of the Boeing 737, the 737-900ER, for which it placed an order in 2005. On the 2005 Paris Air Show, Lion Air signed a preliminary agreement with Boeing for the purchase of up to 60 Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft, valued at $3.9 billion at list prices. Lion Air confirmed their order in July 2005 and became the launch customer for the Boeing 737-900ER with firm orders for 30 aircraft and options for 30 more, which were later converted into firm orders. The -900ER can carry up to 215 passengers in a single-class layout, and is powered by CFM56-7B turbofan engines. On 27 April 2007, Boeing delivered the first 737-900ER to Lion Air. The aircraft was delivered in a special dual-paint scheme that combines Lion Air's logo on its vertical stabilizer and the Boeing "Dreamliner" livery on the fuselage.

Lion Air set a world record when it placed an order for 230 aircraft from Boeing, making this the largest order in terms of aircraft ordered as well the cost of the order. In November 2011, Lion Air and Boeing announced that the airline planned to buy 29 additional Boeing 737 Next Generation and 201 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, with options for 150 more, valued at $21.7 billion at the time.

In April 2018, Lion Air Group placed an order for 50 Boeing 737 MAX 10 jets, valued at a list price of $6.24 billion.

However, following the crash of Flight 610 in October 2018, Lion Air announced that all Boeing orders would likely be cancelled. The statement was further reinforced following the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which eventually led to the worldwide grounding of all 737 MAX aircraft currently in service. In the days that followed after Flight 302's crash, Bloomberg News reported that Lion Air was evaluating options from Airbus, having already refused to take delivery of a 737 MAX that was going to be delivered in March 2019.

The airline received its first of 10 Airbus A330-900 aircraft on 19 July 2019, becoming the first Asia/Pacific operator of the type.

Former fleet

In the past, Lion Air has previously operated the following aircraft:

<!-- DO NOT add aircraft to this list unless all planes of that type have been retired -->

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:0.5em auto; text-align:center"

!Aircraft

!Total

!Operated

!Retired

!Notes

|-

|Airbus A310-300

|1

|2000

|2003

|

|-

|Boeing 737-200

|2

|2001

|2003

|

|-

|Boeing 737-300

|2

|2006

|2014

|

|-

|Boeing 737-400

|10

|2004

|2014

|

|-

|Boeing 737 MAX 8

|15

|2017

|2022

|PK-LQP crashed as Flight 610. Remaining aircraft will be transferred to Batik Air Malaysia.

|-

|Boeing 747-400

|2

|2009

|2019

|Replaced by Airbus A330-900. PK-LHF is preserved as the Steak 21 Restaurant in Bekasi, while PK-LHG was scrapped.

|-

|McDonnell Douglas MD-82

|17

|2002

|2012

|One crashed as Flight 538.

|-

|McDonnell Douglas MD-83

|1

|2003

|2008

|

|-

|McDonnell Douglas MD-90-30

|5

|2005

|2012

|

|-

|Yakovlev Yak-42

|5

|2001

|2002

|

|}

Market share

In the 2000s Lion Air began to grow and became a serious rival for the flag carrier Garuda Indonesia in domestic air travel in Indonesia. By mid 2015, Lion Air led Indonesia's domestic air travel market with 41.6 percent share, while Garuda Indonesia came in second with 23.5 percent share. Sriwijaya Air came in third with a market share of 10.4 percent, followed by Garuda's low-cost subsidiary Citilink (8.9 percent) and Lion Air's regional flight service Wings Air (4.7 percent). Indonesia AirAsia, a unit of Malaysian budget airline AirAsia, had a 4.4 percent market share.

From 2005 to 2017, the domestic market share of Lion Air Group increased by more than 100%, from 25% to 51%, while Garuda Indonesia's increased from 24% to 33%; their international market share in 2017 was 21% and 39% respectively, while Indonesia AirAsia / Indonesia AirAsia X had 36% of the international market.

Incidents, accidents and other controversies

  • On 14 January 2002, Lion Air Flight 386, a Boeing 737-200 (registration PK-LID) crashed after trying to take-off with an incorrect flap configuration at Sultan Syarif Kasim II International Airport. Everyone on board survived but the aircraft was written off. This was the first incident involving Lion Air.
  • On 30 November 2004, Lion Air Flight 538, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashed in Surakarta with registration PK-LMN (c/n 49189); 25 people died, including the captain.
  • On 29 October 2018, Lion Air Flight 610, a Boeing 737 MAX 8, crashed in the Java Sea twelve minutes after takeoff from Jakarta. All 189 people on board died. Following the similar crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 less than five months later, the Boeing 737 MAX was grounded.
  • In March 2019, former Indonesian transportation safety investigators and a former Lion Air employee claimed that Lion Air had attempted to bribe transportation safety officials, including crash investigators, in at least one case with the knowledge of now-President Director of Lion Air, Edward Sirait.
  • In September 2019, Lion Air confirmed that personal data of around 35 million customers had been leaked, including passport details, home addresses, and phone numbers.
  • On 16 February 2019, Lion Air Flight 714, a Boeing 737-800, overran the runway at Supadio Airport, Pontianak. All 189 occupants evacuated the aircraft via Escape Slide and Overwing Exit.

See also

  • Aviation in Indonesia
  • Lion Air Group
  • Batik Air Malaysia
  • Wings Air
  • Batik Air
  • Thai Lion Air
  • List of airlines of Indonesia

References