Lion Air officially retires its B747-400 in order to welcome A330-900neo

Report by : KUCINTA SETIA

                 Image courtesy : Lion Air

Lion Air honoured the milestone of 19 years of its sole Boeing B747-400 flight operations and recognized the end of this aircraft service on 27 March 2019.

The B747-400 (PK-LHG) first operated flight service on 23 April 2009. It served passengers on domestic routes from Jakarta Cengkareng to Kualanamu, Batam, Surabaya, Denpasar and Makassar as well as international flights from Cengkareng to Jeddah and Madinah in Saudi Arabia for ten years. It has a seat configuration of 12 Business Class seats and 492 Economy Class seats.

Therefore, Lion Air gives the highest appreciation for the end of the Boeing 747-400 operations through a special event that raised the theme of the last moment of the B747 aircraft and announced its preparations to welcome its new aircraft Airbus A330-900neo.

The Airbus A330-900neo wide-body aircraft will be delivered in stages according to schedule and the first is planned to arrive in Indonesia in May 2019. This year, Lion Air will receive two A330-900neo aircraft.

Lion Air in 2018 has ordered ten  Airbus A330-900neo aircraft and has the option of obtaining four similar aircraft. The ten aircraft are scheduled for delivery to Lion Air Group in 2019 and 2020.

The operation of Airbus A330neo will provide added value to customers with the presence of direct flights including non-stop Umrah flights (Middle East) on new routes including from Makassar to Madinah, Balikpapan to Jeddah, Surabaya to Madinah and Solo to Jeddah.

Using A330-900neo, Lion Air is also preparing to expand its route network to South Asia, including India.