Lion to launch subsidiary, Batik Air

Neelam Mathews

Sept 10, 2012

Indonesia’s Transportation Ministry has  issued a flight permit to a new, full-service airline, Batik Air, a subsidiary of the country’s largest domestic carrier, budget, Lion Air, reports Jakarta Post. The airline has been approved to fly 66 domestic routes and 20 international routes.. 

Batik Air’s first flight is scheduled for March next year.

Batik Air will connect Jakarta, Medan, Denpasar, and Manado to major cities in ASEAN, East Asia, and Australia,” said a company spokesman to the Post. It will use Boeing 737-900ER and the five B787s on order, the first delivery of which is expected in 2015.

The new airline’s aircraft livery will use a batik motif associated with Indonesia. Lion Air’s hub is Jakarta and it has 81 aircraft  flying to 36 cities in Indonesia. It has 280  Boeing jets on order.

It is likely, according to reports, that Lion Air and Malaysia's National Aerospace & Defense Industries (NADI)  may form a joint venture airline in Malaysia, likely to compete with AirAsia on many routes.