Airline News
Lion Air awaits widebodies
June 8th 2015
Indonesia’s rising giant – the Lion Air Group, founded by influential business brothers Kusnan and Rusdi Kirana – said it was looking forward to receiving three all-economy A330-300s from October to December “to reduce frequency and carry more passengers” on domestic routes. Read More » “We will use the wide-body jets for our domestic flights, particularly for the busiest flight routes, for example Jakarta to Medan, Jakarta to Surabaya and Jakarta to Makassar to reduce flight frequency,” Lion Air director of safety and security, Capt. Daniel Putut Kuncoro Adi, told The Jakarta Post last week. He added one A330 would be used to replace the B747 currently used on Lion’s Jakarta-Jeddah route.
Daniel also said his airline was waiting for redress from Transport Ministry director-general, Ignasius Jonan, after Indonesia’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) suspended Lion Air's licenses on ten domestic routes, in addition to barring it from applying for new ones, following massive delays in February that left more than 3,000 passengers stranded. “We have fulfilled all the requirements and met the crisis management standards. We hope the ministry can immediately lift the sanction as we are planning to expand our network this year,” said Daniel.
Daniel’s comments stand in direct contrast to a statement he gave last month, saying Lion Air was looking to temporarily halt its expansion due to “significant reductions in passenger numbers” following Indonesia’s new price floor regulation, introduced in February, which prohibits discount fares of less than 40% of the official price. "Since the policy was implemented, many passengers switched because Lion Air was not able to fix the flight tickets at low prices," Daniel said in May.
Meanwhile, Indonesian flag carrier, Garuda Indonesia, and its executive team led by chief Arif Wibowo, are still evaluating options to escape the dilemma involving its Amsterdam route after Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta airport operator, Angkasa Pura II, recently decreased the airport’s pavement classification number, effectively barring Garuda’s B777-300ERs from taking off for Europe fully-loaded. “We are planning to reroute the flight with a stopover in Singapore, but we will continue to serve a direct flight from Amsterdam to Jakarta,” Wibowo said. “Strengthening a runway takes time. The fastest way to do so is by covering it with an asphalt layer, and we are still conducting a study of it,” said Angkasa Pura II operational director, Djoko Murjatmodjo.
