Lion Air to lease Halim Perdanakusuma airport
Lion Air to lease Halim Perdanakusuma airport
Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Domestic budget carrier PT Lion Mentari Airlines (Lion Air) has
signed a contract to lease little-used Halim Perdanakusuma
airport in East Jakarta to accommodate its growing fleet.
Lion Air spokesman Hasyim Arsal Alhabsi said on Sunday that
the company would start rebuilding a terminal and constructing
additional facilities, such as a mall, before the end of the
year.
"The airport will start operations (for Lion Air) hopefully by
the end of next year," said Hasyim.
The lease for the airport, used mainly for visiting statesmen,
top government officials and the Indonesian Air Force, is valid
for 25 years.
Hasyim said the contract involved three parties: Lion Air, the
Air Force, and state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura.
"The airport will still be used for state and Air Force
purposes. There will be further discussions on the arrangement,"
he added.
He declined to disclose the value of the lease and investment
needed to construct the new facilities and refurbish the airport.
Lion Air's decision to lease Halim airport came after its
efforts to build a terminal at Soekarno-Hatta International
Airport fell through.
"We haven't decided yet whether to use only Halim ... or also
Soekarno-Hatta," said Hasyim. "Other airlines will also be able
to use Halim Perdanakusuma (after the refurbishment is
finished)."
Established in 2000, Lion Air is one of the pioneer budget
airlines in the country, providing cheap air fares to boost the
number of air passengers in an industry long-dominated by
expensive and inefficient state-owned carriers.
It is now the third largest airline in terms of fleet size
after national flag-carrier Garuda Indonesia Airlines and state-
owned Merpati Airlines.
At present, the budget carrier has a fleet of 23 aircraft,
said Hasyim.
In October, Lion announced it had purchased or leased another
15 aircraft, which are expected to be delivered by June 2005.
Five of the new planes are MD-90s with a capacity of 170
passengers, while the remainder are Boeing 737-400s with a
capacity of 158 passengers.
"We plan to expand our fleet to 50 aircraft by the end of
2005," said Hasyim.
Lion Air is also expanding its flights to new destinations,
both domestically and internationally. By December, it plans to
incorporate flights to Semarang, Jambi, Bangka, Belitung,
Gorontalo, several cities in Papua and others in eastern
Indonesia.
New regional destinations include South Korea, India, Hong
Kong, Guangzhou in China and Australia.
According to its data, the airline has been averaging some
500,000 passengers per month this year with a load factor of
between 91 and 96 percent, up from 300,000 to 400,000 passengers
per month in 2003.