Lion Air

Lion Air

IATA JT ICAO LNI Callsign LION INTER
Founded	1999 (1999)
Hubs	Juanda International Airport (Surabaya) Soekarno–Hatta International Airport (Jakarta)
Focus cities	Ngurah Rai International Airport (Denpasar)
Frequent-flyer program	Lion Passport
Airport lounge	Lion King Lounge
Subsidiaries	Wings Air
Fleet size	77
Destinations	60
Company slogan	We make people fly
Headquarters	Jakarta, Indonesia
Key people	Rusdi Kirana (CEO)
Website	lionair.co.id

PT Lion Mentari Airlines, operating as Lion Air, is Indonesia’s largest privately-run airline^[1], capturing the largest share of the domestic market share. Headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia, Lion Air flies to cities within Indonesia and to Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. Its main base is Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta.^[2] It operates scheduled passenger services on an extensive network from Jakarta to 56 destinations (as of July 2010).

Along with most other Indonesian carriers, Lion Air (including its Wings Air subsidiary) is on the list of air carriers banned in the European Union due to safety concerns as of February 2012. The airline has applied multiple times for membership in The International Air Transport Association (IATA), but it has been denied due to several safety concerns.^[3]

[edit] History

A Lion Air MD-82 with 'www.lionair.co.id' titles boarding at Sultan Syarif Kasim II Airport, Indonesia (2006)

The airline was established in October 1999 and started operations on June 30, 2000, when it began scheduled passenger services between Jakarta and Pontianak using a leased Boeing 737-200. It is owned by Rusdi Kirana and family.^[2] The airline is also planning to join 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 is pioneering 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.^[4]

Starting February 2010, Lion Air increased the number of flights to Jeddah to five times weekly. This route is being served by two Boeing 747-400 with 496 seats.^[5]

Aviation Week has reported that Lion Air is planning to establish a joint-venture with Malaysian regional carrier Berjaya Air, in order to create a Malaysian subsidiary. However, the venture was called-off after it became clear that AirAsia and MAS would collude rather than compete.

From 19 July 2011, Lion Air has grounded 13 planes due to sanction caused by bad on-time performance (OTP) until Lion Air can fulfill at least 80 percent of 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.^[6][7] On the other hand, airlines face considerable delays to their schedule flying to/from Jakarta airport due to runway congestion^[8].

On 18 November 2011, the airline jointly announced with Boeing for a record-setting order of 201 Boeing 737 Max and 29 Boeing 737-900ER planes setting the record for the world's biggest single order of 230 planes for a commercial airline worth $21.7 billion.^[9]

In January 2012, the Transportation Ministry says that it 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 along with two other co-pilots were arrested at a party in Tangerang; and in early 2012 a pilot was caught in possession of crystal meth in Makassar.^[10] On 4 February 2012, another pilot of Lion Air was arrested following an positive urinalysis test for use of methamphetamine, although he was scheduled to fly on Surabaya-Makassar-Balikpapan-Surabaya flight hours later.^[11] The licenses of the pilots and crew have been revoked.

[edit] Destinations

Lion Air serves 60 destinations, 55 domestic and 4 international (as of July 2011).

[edit] Fleet

[edit] Current fleet

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2012)

As of 23 April 2012, the Lion Air fleet consists of the following aircraft with an average age of 5.9 years:^[1][12]

[edit] Orders

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, which it placed an order for in 2005. On 26 May 2005, 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 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 29 737-900ER and 201 737 MAX aircraft, with options for 150 more, valued at $21.7 billion at the time.^[9] A firm order was signed on 14 February 2012, with the 737 MAX aircraft identified as 737 MAX 9s, making Lion Air the launch customer for that variant.^[15] By the time of the signing, the order's value had risen to $22.4 billion at list prices, the largest aircraft order in history.^[15] Additionally, the engines for the -900ERs, CFM 56-7s, cost about $580 million and the engines for the MAXs, CFM LEAP-1Bs, cost about $4.8 billion.^[15] Deliveries of the -900ERs are to start in 2016, with the MAXs to follow in 2017.^[15]

[edit] Retired fleet

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

[edit] Private jet business

In early 2012, the Transportation Ministry said that the airline was processing an Air Operator Certificate (AOC) for their private business jets. Private-jet services will be launched in the third quarter of 2012 with 4 of nine-seater jets Hawker 900 XP. The aim is to serve clients from the country's mining industry and will compete with Susi Air and Royal Jet.^[17]

[edit] Incidents and accidents

• On 14 January 2002, Lion Air Flight 386, a Boeing 737-200 crashed on take-off and was written off; no one was killed.
• On 30 November 2004, Lion Air Flight 538, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashed in Surakarta, killing 25 people. This is the airline's first and only fatal accident as of January 2012.^[18]
• On 4 March 2006, Lion Air Flight 8987, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashed after landing at Juanda International Airport.^[19] Reverse thrust was used during landing, although the left thrust reverser was stated to be out of service.^[19] This caused the aircraft to veer to the right and skid off the runway, coming to rest about 7,000 feet (2,100 m) from the approach end of the runway.^[19] No-one was killed but the aircraft was badly damaged.^[19]
• On 24 December 2006, Lion Air Flight 792, a Boeing 737-400, landed with an incorrect flap configuration and was not aligned with the runway.^[20] The plane landed hard and skidded along the runway causing the right main landing gear to detach, the left gear to protrude through the wing and some of the aircraft fuselage to be wrinkled.^[20] No one was killed and the aircraft was written off.^[20]
• On 23 February 2009, Lion Air Flight 972, a McDonnell Douglas MD-90, landed without the front landing gear at Hang Nadim Batam Airport. No one was injured and the aircraft was repaired and returned to service.
• On 2 November 2010, Lion Air Flight 712, a Boeing 737-400 (registration PK-LIQ) overran the runway on landing at Supadio Airport, Pontianak, coming to rest on its belly and sustaining damage to its nose gear. All 174 passengers and crew evacuated by the emergency slides, with few injuries reported.^[21]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lion Air

	Indonesia portal
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• Official website