Super Air Jet

Super Air Jet is one of the youngest airlines you regularly see in Indonesia – and one of the fastest-growing. Launched in the middle of the pandemic with three used A320s, it now flies a fleet larger than that of many established airlines. For spotters it is intriguing because, in the dense Indonesian market between Lion Air, Batik Air, Citilink and Garuda, it first has to be placed correctly. This page shows you how to recognize Super Air Jet and what is behind the brand.

Super Air Jet at a glance

Super Air Jet is an Indonesian low-cost airline based in Jakarta. It was founded on March 1, 2021 – at a time when hardly anyone worldwide was thinking about new airlines. At the end of June 2021 the Indonesian transport ministry issued the air operator certificate, and on August 6, 2021 the first flight took off: from Jakarta to Medan and Batam. The COVID restrictions had delayed the launch by about a month.

At launch the schedule included routes from Jakarta to Batam, Medan, Padang, Palembang, Pekanbaru and Pontianak, so mainly connections from the capital to Sumatra and Kalimantan. Within a few years that has grown into a network of around 40 destinations. The fleet grew at the same pace: from the first three used A320s to around 60 aircraft by mid-2026.

The business model is classic low-cost: a uniform fleet, a single class, point-to-point flights between the islands. From the start the airline has named young travelers in particular as its target group. How such budget airlines work in general is explained in the article on the low-cost carrier business model.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code IU: appears in the flight number, on the departure board and on the ticket.
• ICAO code SJV: appears in the air traffic control flight plan and usually on flight trackers too.
• Callsign PROSPER: how the crew identifies itself on the radio.

The codes have no obvious relation to the name – that is normal for IATA codes, because many obvious combinations were assigned long ago. For the ICAO code SJV you can at least remember “Super Jet” as a mnemonic. Why there are two different code systems at all is explained in the guide to IATA and ICAO codes.

Super Air Jet and the Lion Air Group

The most intriguing question about Super Air Jet is that of ownership. The airline was financed by Rusdi Kirana, the founder of the Lion Air Group. Super Air Jet’s chief, Ari Azhari, also came from the management of the Lion group. The operating company is PT Kabin Kita Top. Indonesian sources therefore often assign Super Air Jet directly to the Lion Air Group.

Officially, however, the airline has denied a formal connection to Lion Air and its subsidiaries. For you as a spotter the cautious wording remains: Super Air Jet is close to the Lion Air orbit but presents itself as a separate brand with its own codes.

A look at the fleets is revealing. Within the Lion orbit the airlines divide up the types quite clearly:

Airline	Role	Typical aircraft	Spotter tip
Lion Air	Large low-cost airline	Boeing 737, plus Airbus A330	The 737 fleet shapes the picture at many domestic airports
Wings Air	Regional service	ATR 72	Turboprops on short routes and small airfields
Batik Air	Full-service brand	Airbus A320 and Boeing 737	Same Airbus type as Super Air Jet – risk of confusion
Super Air Jet	Low-cost, young target group	Airbus A320-200	All-A320 fleet, registrations PK-S…

That makes Super Air Jet something like the Airbus low-cost sister to Lion Air’s 737s. Outside Indonesia you also find the Lion network at Batik Air Malaysia and Thai Lion Air – but neither flies under the Super Air Jet brand.

The fleet: all Airbus A320

The fleet is the simplest identifying feature: Super Air Jet flies only the Airbus A320-200. According to available fleet lists, around 60 aircraft were in service in mid-2026, all with 180 seats in a single economy class. No open orders for new aircraft are known.

Type	Number (as of mid-2026)	Seats	Spotter tip
Airbus A320-200	around 60	180	First generation (ceo), mostly taken over used
Airbus A320neo	–	–	According to available information, not in the fleet
Airbus A321	–	–	According to available information, not in the fleet

The airline started with three used A320s. Later, too, a large part of the fleet came second-hand. That has an appeal for spotters: many aircraft have a history with other airlines that you can trace back through the registration and serial number. The manufacturer is of course Airbus.

Because the aircraft come from different build years and from different previous owners, it is worth looking at the wingtips. Older A320s carry small wingtip fences, newer ones the tall sharklets. Which variant each individual aircraft has depends on the aircraft. How to tell the shapes apart is shown in the guide to winglets and sharklets.

A320ceo or A320neo? Telling them apart reliably

In Indonesia many airlines fly the A320 – and some already the neo generation. At Super Air Jet, according to available information, you are always looking at the first generation. Still, it is worth knowing the differences so you sort correctly at other airlines at the same spot.

The details are explained in the article A320neo or ceo?. And if you can’t yet reliably tell the lengths of the family apart: Telling the A318, A319, A320 and A321 apart helps – at Super Air Jet it is always the A320.

How to recognize Super Air Jet

The clearest clue is the “Super Air Jet” titles on the fuselage. Together with the type, they narrow down the airline well: an A320 with this name can only be Super Air Jet. In photos from a greater distance or in backlight, though, the titles are not always legible – then the registration and the tracker help.

Indonesian aircraft carry the registration prefix PK-. At Super Air Jet this is usually followed by letter combinations with S, for example in the series PK-SA…, PK-SG…, PK-SJ… and PK-ST…. How registrations are structured in general is explained in Understanding aircraft registrations.

The airline also has a few special liveries and advertising spaces in its fleet that are interesting for collectors:

• PK-STQ wears a livery for the fleet’s 50th jet.
• PK-SAT and PK-SAV advertise with the motif “Say No to Drugs, Say Yes to Travel.”
• PK-SJS flies in plain white.
• PK-SAE wears an advertising livery for a banking partner.
• Other aircraft carry stickers from advertising partners, such as a travel platform.

Special liveries change, disappear after a contract ends or get painted over. So before a targeted trip, check whether the design is still current. Tips for searching are in the guide Finding special liveries.

Route network and bases

Super Air Jet is a domestic airline. The network connects around 40 destinations in Indonesia, and the home base is Jakarta-Soekarno-Hatta (CGK). Beyond that, the airline stations aircraft at further bases, including Batam, Medan, Surabaya, Makassar, Balikpapan, Denpasar on Bali, Semarang and Yogyakarta. This results in direct connections between the big islands without everything having to run via Jakarta.

Among the destinations are big cities as well as tourist spots, such as Labuan Bajo as the gateway to Komodo National Park or Mataram on Lombok. The only international destination in the network, according to available information, is Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur Airport). Some routes, including to Ambon, Jayapura and Sorong, were discontinued again after a while – so the network is in motion.

Spotting Super Air Jet

To get Super Air Jet into your logbook, you have to go to Southeast Asia. In Indonesia you meet the airline mainly at the big domestic airports, where it operates alongside Lion Air, Batik Air, Citilink and Garuda Indonesia. Traffic is dense right there, and in one day you can compare several airlines with A320s and 737s.

Outside Indonesia, Kuala Lumpur is the most realistic chance. There, AirAsia also flies, one of the region’s best-known A320 low-cost airlines – a good comparison if you want to photograph the liveries side by side. If you make a stop in Singapore on a trip through Asia, Plane spotting in Singapore has tips for Singapore Changi Airport – though Super Air Jet itself is not in the schedule there according to the available route information.

For collectors, a systematic approach pays off with Super Air Jet: because the fleet is manageably sized and uniform, you can target individual registrations or the special liveries. How to track a specific aircraft is shown in Tracking an aircraft by registration. How rare an individual aircraft is, you can better judge with the guide Judging the rarity of a sighting.

Common mix-ups

• Mistaking Super Air Jet for Batik Air – both fly the A320; the titles, registration and ICAO code (SJV) set them apart.
• Logging Super Air Jet as a Lion Air subsidiary – the closeness to the Lion orbit is clear, but the airline has denied a formal affiliation.
• Expecting an A320neo – according to available information, Super Air Jet flies only the first A320 generation.
• Mixing up IU and SJV – IU is the IATA code in the flight number, SJV the ICAO code in the tracker.
• Assuming special liveries are permanent – advertising spaces change; a current look at other spotters’ sightings saves you disappointment.

Conclusion

Super Air Jet shows how quickly a new airline can become big in Indonesia: launched in 2021 with three used A320s, flying around 60 aircraft by mid-2026. For spotters it is rewarding because the fleet is uniform and the registration and ICAO code allow a clean attribution. If you know the closeness to the Lion Air orbit and separate the A320 from the 737s and ATRs of the sister brands, you will quickly sort the Indonesian sky correctly.