Fantastic Lion Air order Airbus!

Read the forum code of contact

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,886

Great news for AI, this coming on top of the Turkish orders. Happy days for AI:)

http://www.france24.com/en/20130318-airbus-major-order-indonesia-lion-air-a320-france

Original post

Member for

14 years

Posts: 949

It boggles my mind how they can get the financing. If it all fails miserably, that is a huge glut of second-hand aircraft destroying resale values and hurting future Airbus/Boeing orders. Huge risk. Just look at Kingfisher to see how it can all go so wrong.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,886

That was the first thing that crossed my mind, as I watched the report. I still find it amazing, that Emirates envisage filling all those A380s they have on order. Still, I guess that like Lion Air, they've done the math.

Member for

11 years 8 months

Posts: 569

Am I the only one who thinks poor previous safety record + rapidly expanding airline = recipe for disaster?
Definitely an airline I'll be actively seeking to avoid should I ever visit Indonesia.

How many crashes has that airline had over the past 10 years? Or even over the past year?
I always love going onto the aviation herald to check up on which airport has had the weekly lionair overrun :D

Member for

13 years 5 months

Posts: 506

According to Local Article, those Airbus are plan for overseas operations. From Lion point of view, they are planning to rival Air Asia by opening several airlines subsidiaries outside Indonesia. The first such subsidiary was Malindo Air in Malaysia.

Since 2010 the only large operational airline fatal crash is Merpati airlines in West Papua, using Chinese made turboprop. Other was SSJ demo flight last year.

Btw. I only fly with National Flag carrier Garuda ;)

Some talk with a Lion Air executive indicate they're only plan to use their plane for average of 5-6 years. If this true than it's means those orders will not all operating with Lion Air (and Subsidiaries) at same time. In paper, Lion, order more than 400 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing, however I believe only around 50% of that that going operational at same time. The rest will be used as replacement on existing fleet.

Member for

14 years

Posts: 949

Bad news for future second-hand aircraft prices. Not only Lion Air, but other airlines will be returning aircraft off-lease.

Good news if you are an airline like Delta Air Lines or Allegiant.

Member for

16 years

Posts: 1,059

All large orders like this are good news - now for Airbus and previously for Boeing - but I can't help wondering what Lion Air is going to do with that many aircraft. And, the fact that it is not allowed to fly in EU airspace doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
Let's hope I'm wrong for the sake of lots of people, not least the Airbus and Boeing workers.

Member for

20 years 5 months

Posts: 10,625

They have a hundred or so 737MAX on order I believe too, plus an existing order for a hundred or so A320.

Member for

13 years 5 months

Posts: 506

All large orders like this are good news - now for Airbus and previously for Boeing - but I can't help wondering what Lion Air is going to do with that many aircraft. And, the fact that it is not allowed to fly in EU airspace doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
Let's hope I'm wrong for the sake of lots of people, not least the Airbus and Boeing workers.

What is the relations on ordering many aircraft with can't flying on EU Airspace ? Lion Air, Air Asia or any other high growth budget Airline in Asia never (or if they did, only on very small percentage) considered EU as their target on any of their business plan. The airline industry growth in Asia far exceeding EU.

As I've mentioned before, not all of those 400+ aircraft order by Lion Air will operated in same period. Like any other Airline that put large order, some of the order will be counted as replacement for existing Aircraft. Presently Lion Air (and it's subsidiary Wings Air) already operated more than 100 Aircraft, thus some of the new order when delivered, will be slotted as replacement, since the airline already targeted the average age of it's fleet around 5-6 years. Most of those high growth budget Airline in Asia like Lion, Air Asia, Cebu Pacific etc, will target their average fleet age around that number, for cost efficiency.

Lion like Air Asia plan to operated several Airlines subsidiary in several Regional Country. Air Asia Group already operated Airline from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Japan. Lion besides Indonesia already setting subsidiary which will operated soon from Malaysia, and from what I heard they are in negotiations in Vietnam, Philippines and Myanmar.

Those hundreds of Aircraft thus will fly solely on Regional Asian routes, and chances very small they ever think on operating to EU airspace. Budget Airline concept seems not fit well with long haul operations from Asia to EU airspace. Look Air Asia X, after try for some time with EU routes, then finally decided focusing only on Asian routes.

BTW: Lion Airline after got ban to US Airspace by FAA, then got approval by FAA for US operations after they place huge order with Boeing. Can anybody still certain they will still ban much longer from EU operations after ordering this large number of Airbus :dev2:

Not they ever will try budget airline concept to fly to EU or US anyway ;)