Lion Air

Lion Air MD90 aircraft at Sentani Airport of Jayapura, Papua

Lion Air is a low-cost airline based in Jakarta, Indonesia. It operates scheduled passenger services on an extensive domestic network from Jakarta to 35 destinations, as well as services to Singapore and Malaysia. Its full name is PT Lion Mentari Airlines. Its main base is Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta ^[1].

History

The airline was established in October 1999 and started operations on 30 June 2000, when it began scheduled passenger services between Jakarta and Pontianak using a leased Boeing 737-200. It is wholly owned by Rusdi Kirana and family ^[1].

Incidents and accidents

Incidents include:

• In 2002 one of their aircraft Lion Air Flight JT-386 crashed on take-off and was written off; however no-one was killed.
• In November 2004 a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, Lion Air Flight 538, crashed in Surakarta, killing 25 people. The accident report attributed the cause to poor airport condition. Data however showed pilot error, and lack of reserve fuel forcing the pilot to attempt to land in bad weather.
• 24 December 2006: A Boeing 737-400 had a hard landing in Makassar^[2].
• 1 October 2007: An MD-90 tail strike ground while taking off, causing 2.5 m tear in cargo area of the plane (source republika.co.id).
• December 2007 : MD 90 engine cover and tail pipe fell off on the runway of Soekarno-Hatta airport.

Fleet

A Lion Air aircraft

The Lion Air fleet includes the following aircraft (at December 2007):

Lion Air average fleet age is 13.9 years old in December 2007.^[3]

First to fly Boeing 737-900ER

PK-LFI, the 5th Boeing 737-900ER Lion Air aircraft at Hasanuddin Airport of Makassar

On 26 May 2005 Lion Air signed a preliminary agreement with Boeing for the purchase of up to 60 Next Generation Boeing 737 aircraft, valued at $3.9 billion. These would replace the current fleet and provide for further expansion. Subsequently in July 2005, Lion Air confirmed a contract for 30 Boeing 737-900ER plus 30 options. The Boeing 737-900ER can carry up to 215 passengers in a single-class layout, and will be powered by CFM56-7B26 turbofan engines. On 17 July 2006, Lion Air announced it has converted options for another 30 Boeing 737-900ER into firm orders (now total of 60 aircraft on order), with deliveries commencing early 2010 through to 2012. On April 27 2007, Boeing delivered the first Boeing 737-900ER to the launch customer Lion Air. The airplane was delivered in a special dual paint scheme that combines the Lion Air lion on the vertical stabilizer and the Boeing livery colors on the fuselage. On June 18 2007, Lion Air announced at the Paris Air Show orders for an additional 40 737-900ER planes bringing its orders to 100. On December 04 2007, Lion Air announced 22 addition order of 737-900ER bringing the total order to 122 737-900ER

PK-LMI, 'www.lionair.co.id'

External links

• Lion Air
• Lion Air Fleet

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Directory: World Airlines", Flight International, 2007-04-03, p. 106. 
2. ^ Flight International 13-19 March 2007
3. ^ Lion Air Fleet Age

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