Lion Air eyes Vietnam

HANOI Indonesia’s low cost airline, Lion Air, plans a joint venture in Vietnam around the second quarter of next year using its Batik Air brand.

Vietnam Net Bridge reported Lion Air is currently negotiating a joint venture  with a Vietnamese partner and signed a Memorandum of Understanding last week in Jakarta.

According to the memorandum, the joint venture  airline will be called Batik Air .

Lion Air will hold 49% of the shares, while an unnamed Vietnamese partner will retain 51%.

Plans for the joint operation are expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2017, the report said.

Previously in 2014, the company wanted to start a fully owned airline in Australia, but the plan was delayed to allow expansion in the ASEAN market.

The Jakarta Post quoted Lion Air co-founder, Rusdi Kirana, saying expansion to Malaysia and Thailand required more planes, so the airline postponed plans for the Australian market.

Lion Air is based in Jakarta, Indonesia and is now the country’s largest private airline and the second largest low-cost airline in Southeast Asia, after AirAsia.

Lion Air created Malindo Air in Malaysia in 2012 and continued the expansion with Thai Lion Air in 2013, the report said.

Batik Air is the carrier’s subsidiary airline which made its maiden flight in May 2013 from Jakarta to Pontianak.

sourced:ttrweekly.com