Lion Air to Purchase 60 Boeing Jetliners

With all the increasing criticism flying around regarding domestic airlines, it is good to see that at least one company is forging ahead to provide better service and new routes for its customers.

Indonesia’s Airline Company Lion Air would purchase 60 Boeing 737-900 jetliners worth about US$3 billion directly from the United States, Lion Air Spokesman Hasyim Arsal Alhabsi said here on Monday in an article in the Antara News.

The new airplanes which are expected to arrive in Indonesia in April will be used to serve several routes in Indonesia, according to Alhabsi when presenting books donation to the victims of earthquake here.

He said that the first route the new jetliners would serve was Jakarta-Yogyakarta because the number of passengers using this route kept on increasing.

“Sometime in the past, the number of passengers was only about 300 to 400 but now it has reached thousands,” he added.

He hoped that with the operations of the new planes, flight frequencies from Yogyakarta would also increase from the present six flights to 12-15 flights.

“We also plan to increase the flight routes from Yoyakarta to Malaysia and Singapore,” Alhabsi added.

He said that Lion Air would probably lower the price of its fare by about 20 to 25 percent when the new planes began operations.

“These planes have high transportation capacity with efficient fuel consumption,” he said.

As an example, he said, a ticket price of Rp200 thousand could be lowered to Rp100 or to Rp150 thousands.