Lion Air

If you stand at an Indonesian airport for the first time, you quickly notice: nothing happens here without Lion Air. The low-cost airline from Jakarta has strongly shaped air traffic in the world’s largest island nation in a good 25 years – with a dense fleet of Boeing 737s, record orders with Boeing and Airbus and a whole family of sister airlines. At the same time, Lion Air’s history also includes the crash of Flight JT610, which helped trigger the debate about the 737 MAX. This page shows you how to recognize Lion Air reliably and tell it apart from the sisters of the Lion Group.

Lion Air at a glance

Lion Air is an Indonesian low-cost airline based in the Lion Air Tower in Jakarta. It was founded in 1999 by the brothers Rusdi and Kusnan Kirana. On June 30, 2000, the first scheduled flight took off – with a single leased Boeing 737-200 shuttling between Jakarta and Denpasar on Bali as well as to Pontianak on Borneo. The airline itself gives “We Make People Fly” as its motto, and that is exactly what it was about from the start: making flying affordable for many people in a country where ferries and long bus rides are often the only alternative.

From this small start grew Indonesia’s largest low-cost airline. Hubs are Jakarta-Soekarno-Hatta, Surabaya on Java and Makassar on Sulawesi; important bases in Denpasar and Medan as well as Batam near Singapore are added. The network is strongly focused on the domestic market – Indonesia stretches across thousands of islands, and many connections are feasible in reasonable time only by air.

There is no alliance. Like many low-cost carriers, Lion Air mainly sells individual routes; the airline prefers to organize the interplay with feeders within its own group. How the low-cost principle works in detail is explained in the article How low-cost carriers work.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code JT: appears in the flight number, that is on departure boards, tickets and in timetables.
• ICAO code LNI: appears in the flight plan filed with air traffic control and on most flight trackers.
• Callsign LION INTER: how the crew identifies itself on the radio.

For spotters the distinction matters, because several airlines of the Lion Group operate at the same airport. The JT flight number belongs to Lion Air itself; Batik Air, Wings Air and Thai Lion Air have their own codes. If you look only at the logo on the tracker, you quickly mix them up. A look at the guide to flight tracking for spotters helps, as it explains how to read ICAO callsigns and ADS-B data correctly.

One group, many brands: the Lion Group

Lion Air is the parent company of the Lion Group, which has built up several airlines over the years. For passengers these are separate brands, for spotters it is a puzzle with many pieces.

Airline	Headquarters	Founded	Business model	Typical aircraft
Lion Air	Indonesia	1999	Low-cost	Boeing 737, a few Airbus A330s
Wings Air	Indonesia	2003	Regional flights	ATR turboprops
Batik Air	Indonesia	2013	Full service	Airbus A320 and Boeing 737
Thai Lion Air	Thailand	2013	Low-cost	Boeing 737
Batik Air Malaysia (formerly Malindo Air)	Malaysia	2012	Full service	Boeing 737

Wings Air takes over the short island routes and small airfields where a jet would be too big. The turboprops come from ATR – how to tell the types apart is shown in the guide Telling ATR and Dash 8 apart. Batik Air is the group’s full-service brand, with meals on board and a different livery. Abroad, Thai Lion Air flies from Bangkok and Batik Air Malaysia from Kuala Lumpur Airport. The group also includes service companies such as the maintenance provider Batam Aero Technic.

The fleet: Boeing 737s in every length

Lion Air relies almost entirely on the Boeing 737. The exact numbers change constantly because the group shifts aircraft between its airlines. As of 2026 the fleet comprises around 100 aircraft, roughly distributed like this:

Type	Role in the fleet	Spotter note
Boeing 737-900ER	Largest sub-fleet	Lion Air was the launch customer – the long 737 with exits behind the wing
Boeing 737-800	Second pillar domestically	Shorter than the -900ER, classic 737 Next Generation
Boeing 737 MAX 9	Small sub-fleet	Lion Air was the launch customer of the MAX 9
Airbus A330-300	Charter and long-haul	Rare widebody visitor at Indonesian airports
Airbus A330-900	Charter and long-haul	Successor to the 747-400, first aircraft in 2019
Boeing 737 MAX 10	50 on order	Not yet in service

The Boeing 737-900ER is the type that shapes Lion Air most. The airline was the launch customer of this version; the first aircraft was delivered on April 27, 2007 – at the time with a special livery combining the Lion Air logo on the tail with Boeing’s “Dreamliner” design on the fuselage. The -900ER offers more seats than the 737-800 and thus fits perfectly on heavily demanded domestic routes where every additional seat counts.

With the new generation too, Lion Air was at the front: the airline was the launch customer of the Boeing 737 MAX 9. Lion Air used the 737 MAX 8 from 2017; according to available information they are no longer part of the fleet. For the future, more MAX jets are in the order book, including 50 examples of the 737 MAX 10. The manufacturer of all these types is Boeing.

Widebody aircraft are a special case. Lion Air long operated Boeing 747-400s and retired the last one in 2019. The replacement became the Airbus A330-900, whose first aircraft arrived in July 2019; a few A330-300s are added. These jets fly mainly charter, for example to China, Hong Kong or South Korea.

Record orders with Boeing and Airbus

Lion Air has made headlines twice with gigantic orders. In 2011 the airline ordered 230 Boeing 737s – 201 examples of the then-new MAX and 29 Next Generation. With a list value of around 21.7 billion US dollars, that was the largest order in Boeing’s history at the time; it was signed in the presence of then US President Barack Obama.

Just two years later a similarly large order followed at Airbus: 234 aircraft of the A320 family at list prices of around 24 billion US dollars, signed in France in the presence of President François Hollande. Today you see the Airbus jets mainly at sisters like Batik Air – Lion Air itself remains a Boeing airline in the short- and medium-haul segment.

For spotters this is a practical rule of thumb: an Airbus of the A320 family at an Indonesian airport most likely does not belong to Lion Air, but to a sister or to another airline such as Citilink.

737-800, 737-900ER or 737 MAX 9? How to tell them apart

On the apron, the Lion Air 737s look the same at first glance. With a few features you can still assign the version reliably. A detailed overview of all generations is given in the guide Telling the Boeing 737 Original, Classic, NG and MAX apart.

The biggest risk of confusion is between the 737-900ER and the 737 MAX 9, because both are similarly long and have additional exits. So look above all at the engines: the serrated trailing edges of the MAX cowling are still easy to see in photos taken from a greater distance. With the 737-800, length helps instead – it lacks the additional doors behind the wing.

How to recognize Lion Air

The trademark is the lion logo on the tail, combined with the “Lion Air” titles on the fuselage. Most reliable, though, is the overall picture: a 737 with an Indonesian PK- registration, at Lion Air often in the series PK-L…, and a flight number with JT. Thai Lion Air has a similar look but flies with Thai HS- registrations – that is the fastest way to tell the two apart. How registrations are structured in general is explained in the article Understanding aircraft registrations.

Special liveries are the exception at Lion Air, so every look at a deviating paint scheme is worthwhile. If you are specifically hunting special liveries, the guide Finding special liveries helps.

Safety: EU list and Flight JT610

A difficult chapter belongs to Lion Air’s history. Like many Indonesian airlines, Lion Air was on the EU air safety list for years and was not allowed to fly into the EU. In June 2016 the EU lifted the ban for Lion Air; in June 2018 the airline received a positive safety rating after an audit by the International Civil Aviation Organization ICAO.

Several accidents shaped the airline’s image. In 2004 an MD-82 crashed while landing in Surakarta (Solo), and 25 people died. In 2013 a 737-800 landed in the sea short of the runway on approach to Bali; the fuselage broke, and all occupants survived.

The most consequential was the crash of Flight JT610 on October 29, 2018. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 with the registration PK-LQP, only a few months old, crashed into the Java Sea shortly after takeoff from Jakarta; all 189 people on board died. The final report of the Indonesian accident investigation authority KNKT from October 2019 cited a chain of causes: the control system MCAS relied on a single angle-of-attack sensor that had been incorrectly calibrated during an earlier repair, and repeatedly pushed the nose down. The report also criticized assumptions in design and certification, missing information on MCAS in manuals and training, and shortcomings in maintenance and documentation. After the second crash at Ethiopian Airlines in March 2019, the 737 MAX was grounded worldwide – in the US for around 20 months until November 2020. Indonesia lifted its flight ban only at the end of December 2021.

Spotting Lion Air

In Europe, Lion Air cannot be seen in regular service. For a sighting you need a trip to Southeast Asia. Your best chances are at the hubs Jakarta-Soekarno-Hatta, Surabaya and Makassar; the airline is also strongly represented in Denpasar on Bali and in Medan. Bali is the most practical entry point for many, because you can combine vacation and spotting – and get Garuda Indonesia, Batik Air and Citilink in front of your lens alongside Lion Air.

If you change planes in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur on the way to Indonesia, you mostly do not see Lion Air itself there, but often sisters from the group. At Singapore Changi Airport and in Kuala Lumpur, a look at Batik Air Malaysia is worthwhile.

Before you take out your camera abroad, find out about the local rules. Photography at airports is not handled the same everywhere; the article Spotting abroad gives you an overview of what to watch for. Photograph only from publicly accessible areas and avoid security zones.

Common mix-ups

• Taking every lion logo for Lion Air – Thai Lion Air has a similar look but flies with Thai HS- registrations.
• Counting Batik Air as Lion Air – both belong to the group, but Batik Air is a full-service brand of its own with its own codes.
• Logging a 737-900ER as a 737 MAX 9 – both are long, the engines are what decides.
• Assigning an Airbus A320 to Lion Air – on short- and medium-haul routes Lion Air flies Boeing; A320s belong to sisters or other airlines.
• Taking JT for Japan – the IATA code is a pure airline designator with no country link.
• Logging Wings Air turboprops as Lion Air – Wings Air is a regional airline of its own within the group.

Conclusion

Lion Air is the airline that has shaped Indonesia’s domestic air traffic like no other: from the start with a single 737-200 in 2000 to the country’s largest low-cost airline and the core of a group with brands in three countries. For spotters the 737-900ER is the focus, with Lion Air its launch customer. If you check the registration, tracker code and engines carefully, you can reliably separate Lion Air from Batik Air, Wings Air and Thai Lion Air – and turn a vacation sighting into a clean logbook entry.