Advertisement

History of Indonesia’s Lion Air blighted by deadly accident in 2004, near misses and poor management

  • The low-cost airline has a long history of safety problems and was banned from European airspace until 2016

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
A Lion Air plane flies over Sukarno-Hatta airport in Tangerang, outside Jakarta. Photo: AFP

Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air leapt from obscurity to global fame in 2011 when it ordered 230 Boeing planes worth a whopping US$22 billion, the US maker’s biggest ever deal, but it has been dogged by safety issues for years.

When co-founder Rusdi Kirana was asked months later if bank loans would be needed to finance the purchase, he told reporters at the 2012 Singapore Airshow: “I am the bank.”

Founded in 1999 by brothers Rusdi and Kusnan Kirani, the budget carrier began operations in 2000 as Indonesia’s first low-cost carrier, using a leased Boeing 737-200 between Jakarta and Denpasar, capital of the resort island of Bali.

It quickly rode the crest of Indonesia’s soaring domestic air travel sector to become the country’s biggest private airline and second largest in Southeast Asia after Malaysian carrier AirAsia.

A boom in demand in the archipelago, the world’s fourth most populous nation, prompted Lion Air to go on an aircraft-buying spree that made headlines around the world starting in 2011.

With then US president Barack Obama as a witness, Boeing and Lion Air signed the record deal on the sidelines of an Asian summit in Bali for the purchase of 29 737-900s and 201 orders of the new 737 MAX, along with options for 150 more aircraft.

Advertisement