| Carrier: | Lion Air
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| Headquarters: | Indonesia
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| Founded: | 2000
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| Destinations: | 30
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| Bases: | Jakarta, Surabaya
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| Owners: | Rusdi Kirana
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| Listed: | Yes
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| Online Booking: | Yes
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| Website: | http://www.lionair.co.id
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| Fleet | B737-800/900ER on order 60
Dash-8 3
MD-90 5
MD-80 16
B737-400 6
B737-300 2
| Overview - Lion Air Lion Air – Indonesian LCC takes the fast track to growth Indonesias first low cost carrier started life as a travel agency. The company started selling tickets on its own aircraft in 2000 after its owners took advantage of the lower cost of entry existing in post-1997 economic crisis Indonesia to take on flag carrier Garudas dominance in the domestic market. After steady growth, Lion now operates a 36-aircraft fleet, and has become the archipelago nations largest domestic airline.
With Indonesias low cost sector still in its infancy, but featuring intense competition, Lion Air has undertaken a fast-growth strategy to ensure that it acquires the mass necessary to retain its status as leading domestic carrier. The key step in this campaign was taken with the May-05 order for 60 B737-Next Generation aircraft – the B737-800 and the B737-900ER, for which it is the launch customer. Lion Air will use the extended range of the latter aircraft, the first of which will arrive in Jakarta 1H07, to expand its regional network. It presently serves Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Singapore, but has ambitions to reach Hong Kong, as well as cities in India, Australia and China.
Outlook promising for ambitious LCC Lion Airs size and the breadth of its domestic network should allow it to prosper in the fast-growing Indonesian economy. Its new aircraft and public pursuit of maintenance excellence should also help push public concern over a damaging string of crashes – one of them fatal – into the past. The carrier has spoken of a possible listing, but financed the aircraft purchases on its own.
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