Lion Air Boss Once Lived in Poverty, Started as a Ticket Scalper
Before 2000, air tickets were only affordable for the upper class due to their high prices, while middle- and lower-class citizens could only travel by land routes.
Seeing this disparity, Rusdi Kirana was inspired to create a low-cost airline that everyone could enjoy. The idea emerged while he was studying at the Faculty of Economics at Pancasila University and running a side business as a ticket scalper at Soekarno-Hatta Airport.
From that side business, Rusdi gained an understanding of the aviation industry and accumulated capital to expand his ventures. In the 1990s, Rusdi, assisted by his brother Kusnan Kirana, founded a travel agency named “Lion Tour”. The name “Lion” was chosen because both were Leo zodiac signs.
Quoting Warta Ekonomi magazine (2006), he ran this business for 13 years before it expanded further in 1999. That year, with the permission to establish new private airlines in Indonesia, the Kirana brothers founded “Lion Air”.
According to Gatra magazine (13/11/2004), starting with two leased aircraft, the airline’s licence was issued in 1999. However, per Lion Air’s official website, operations began on 30 June 2000.
Lion Air’s first route was Jakarta-Pontianak at Rp300,000. This price was well below competitors’ fares of Rp1.1 million. Soon after, the Jakarta-Manado route, normally Rp2.1 million, was offered at Rp400,000.
Initially, many doubted the business would survive, but it did not fail. Instead, Lion Air thrived as an alternative for the public to fly.
By 2004, Lion Air operated 23 aircraft. Daily, it served 130 flights in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam. The fleet continued to grow.
Before the pandemic, Lion Air’s aircraft dominated Terminal 1 at Soekarno-Hatta Airport. This was because Lion Air also oversaw several airlines such as Wings Air, Batik Air, Lion Bizjet, Malindo Air (Malaysia), and Thai Lion Air (Thailand).
This success led Lion Air to brand itself as a low-cost carrier. Its slogan is “We Make People Fly.” In 2018, the airline carried 36.8 million passengers, accounting for 35% of inter-island and inter-city travellers.
Now, Lion Air has a new airline venture, Super Air Jet. Interestingly, this new carrier was launched during the pandemic when many others stalled.
Super Air Jet’s maiden flight was on 6 August 2021, with routes from Jakarta to Kualanamu, Medan, and Jakarta to Batam. According to its official website, Super Air Jet offers a low-cost carrier concept with direct point-to-point flights in the domestic market, and the company hopes to expand to international routes.
In 2017, Rusdi ranked 33rd among Indonesia’s 50 richest people according to Forbes, with wealth of US$970 million. However, in 2022, his position dropped to 38th with US$835 million.
Although a pioneer in affordable aviation, we all know Lion Air sacrifices something expensive that passengers must pay: flight delays.