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)...