Good News From Indonesia

Indonesia’s largest privately-owned carrier Lion Air plans to place an order for widebodies and wants first deliveries in 2011. Lion plans to order 10-15 widebodies and is interested in Airbus A330-300s and Boeing 777-200ERs.

Airbus A330-300s

The carrier wants first deliveries in 2011 and plans to use the aircraft in the day on busy domestic trunk routes and fly the aircraft at night to destinations in Asia, he says. They aim to make a decision by the first quarter of next year.

The giant Boeing 777-200ER

Indonesian carriers are unable to operate domestically at night because of airport curfews. For example, that Lion Air could operate a widebody at night from Bali Denpasar to Taipei and have passengers arrive in Bali in the morning.

Lion plans to have the widebodies in an all-economy configuration and compete on price. Indonesia has plenty of traffic rights available because at the moment “its only Garuda flying internationally” on longer routes.

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When Lion Air got its 1st Boeing 737-900ER, I managed to secure tickets to Makassar and Ambon. I probably was one of the first flyer of this excellent airplane. It felt different than its peer like Airbus A320. It is faster, comfier, and smoother (outside noise was reduced to minimum). Lion Air has received another four 737-900 Extended Range airplanes from Boeing. Each aircraft costs $87 million each.Jakarta-based Lion Air is the initial launch customer for the 737-900 extended range plane.

Shown here are three of the four 737-900ERs at the 737 Customer Delivery Center at Boeing Field in Seattle.

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Hello, readers. It’s been a tough weekend, sorry for not writing new entry. I got this from this blog. It’s really good to see Garuda’s new simplified and modernized livery on Airbus A330-200. Can you spot the difference from the old livery? And can you spot Lion Air, too?

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Written by Mr Kenji San (GNFI contributor in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

After Garuda Indonesia starts their expansion through Asia-Pacific Region since the ends of last year, it’s now followed by Lion Air, Batavia Air.

Lion Air had their first Boeing 747-400 aircraft arrived at Jakarta by last week. Registered as PK-LHF, this Queen of The Skies completely fit with red-huge Lion Air’s logo on its tail section. Another Lion’s 747 is still on repainting progress at Kualalumpur, registered as PK-LHG. Both are previously went with Singapore Airlines, Spainish carrier – Iberia, and Hongkong based Low Cost Carrier – Oasis Hongkong.

Lion Air's Boeing 747-400 at Soekarno-Hatta Int'l, Jakarta. Photo by Achdiyatma Reza.

The 747s will serve Jakarta-Jeddah route to carry Indonesian Pilgrims and Indonesian workers 4 times a week, or depends on demands, starting from 28th of June 2009. The aircraft capacity itself can carries 498 passengers with two classes configuration, 20 seats for business class and 478 seats for economy. Long haul 8 hours nonstop flight will not be bored because for every seats are integrated with personal tv and entertainment system. And also, they planned to use this aircraft for domestic high demand route, Jakarta-Surabaya or Jakarta.

BATAVIA AIR with Airbus A330-300

And the story goes with Batavia Air. They planned to buy some Airbus 330-200 and -300 series to serve Jakarta-Jeddah route this year. And everyone starts asking, why in the world some airlines really wants to fly this line? Simple! because of its demand! Existing airlines, Garuda Indonesia and Saudi Arabia Airlines always overwhelmed by the demand on every flights. Not only for middle east, these aircrafts will serve some domestic routes, Jakarta-Medan or Jakarta-Manado.

Competition becomes tight, and even more. Whoever cares their passengers, give the best service, and have excellent safety records, will wins the game. And for the passengers, don’t have to wait for being sent to middle east to fly these widebodies with all of their passion or something else. Just plan to spend your time with beloved family and enjoy the beauty of Indonesia. Go with them to Surabaya, Denpasar, Medan, Makassar, or Manado.

One more thing, the winner of this game actually is yourself, Indonesians!

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Few months ago, Lion Air informed us that they’d take over (or join – can’t remember) one Brisbane-based airline, SkyWorld Air, to start serving Australian routes. Only yesterday, I found in one New Zealand-based website, that it is confirmed that Indonesian giant, PT Rajawali Corp would acquire Sheraton Mirage Gold Coast Hotel.

Sheraton Mirage has long been known as the best beachside hotel in Australia; it has 293 rooms and only 25 minutes drive from airport.

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