Lion Air is part of the Lion Air Group. Other units of this group - active in Indonesia - are Batik Air and Wings Air. The Lion Air Group also has stakes in Thai Lion Air in Thailand and Malindo Air in Malaysia. Kirana said his group plans to form three new airlines in Vietnam, Australia and India. Besides simply expanding its business, this strategy will also serve to improve its international connectivity. In the second half of 2017 the Lion Group is planning to team up with a private party in Vietnam to establish a new flight operator in Vietnam (the Lion Group will have a 49 percent stake in this partnership). Despite the minority stake, this new Vietnamese airline will have the Lion Air Group logo on its aircraft (as is the case with Thai Lion Air and Malindo Air).

Meanwhile, the Lion Air Group also plans to expand in Australia using its full service airline Batik Air. The group's operations in Australia could grow from currently one route to five routes (by the end of 2017), and perhaps to ten routes by the end of 2018. In late-2016 Batik Air secured the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) approval and may serve several destinations in Australia somewhere in the future, from both Bali and Jakarta.

Lion Air Aircraft:

Type of Aircraft
Number
Boeing B737    108
Airbus A330      3
Boeing B747      2
Total    113

Source: Investor Daily

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