Lion Air
Name
Institution Affiliated
Introduction
Many airlines are operating across the world, particularly in South East Asia. In Indonesia, there are two leading airlines, one owned by the government, while the other one is a privately held corporation. PT Lion Mentor Airlines, famously known as Lion Air, is the largest privately-owned airline company in Indonesia. Besides, it is also the largest Airline in the country. The Airline was founded in 2000, and started its operation in the year, and developed over the years, establishing more routes and subsidiaries. Today, the Airline operates both internationally and locally and has modern world and big crafts from Boeing, and Airbus. Notably, the Airline is the second largest customer of Boeing after Southwest Airlines, and has set world record in placing huge orders for planes. In 2016, the Airline was criticized for its poor management. However, the company picked up, and improved, leading to its ban lift by the European government. The essay will focus in examining the history, development, management, operation, and accidents the Airline has reported since its foundation in the year 2000.
History of the Airline and its development
Lion Air is a company based in Indonesia and has its headquarters at Jakarta. The Airline was founded in 1999, and begun its activities in 2000 using leased Boeing 200, where it operated from Jakarta to Denpasar (Hooper, 2005). The airline aim was to provide a low-cost airline in the country, becoming its first of the type. The company expanded quickly by leasing two Airbus, and a wet lease of 2 McDonnell_Douglas_MD-82s and Yakovlev Yak-42Ds (Blegur et al., 2014). This promoted the company to develop the first subsidiary in the year 2003, which led to adoption of new flights from Boeing. The Airline developed more subsidiaries in 2012, such as Malindo Air, and Thai Lion Air in the following year (Pearson & Merkert, 2014). In addition, the company joined the International Air Transport Association, making it the second member form Indonesia. In the year 2013, the Airline made one of the biggest purchase of Airbus worth US&24billion in France. The aircrafts ordered were A321 and A320. In 2017, the company also signed a deal with Boeing Company, purchasing 50 737 MAX10 commercial crafts (Clark, 2017).
Over the years, the company continued to extend its activities, and today it serves about 120 destinations, both internationally and locally. Most of its routes are those connecting the country with Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, India, Saudi Arabia, and Australia. In addition, the Airline has also its routes into China and South Korea. The Airline is busy, and has more than four hundred and ninety nine flights daily, and follow more than two hundred and sixty nine scheduled routes, two hundred and eleven charter routes, twenty international destinations, and fourth one domestic routes.
Fleet development and employment
Lion Air is well known for purchases of some of largest airlines in the world such as Airbus and Boeing aircrafts (Jeddi et al., 2014). The first large purchase of the fleet was in 2005, when the company agreed to purchase sixty Boeing 737 Next Generation planes, which was worth &3.9. In 2011, the Airline purchased 201 craft of Boeing 737 max, as well as Boeing 737 -900ER. The company also bought 234 Airbus A320, and 230 jets from Boeing in 2013. In addition, in 2017 the Airline signed an agreement with Boeing, and purchased 50 737 MAX10 passenger crafts, making it the second highest buyer of the aircrafts from the company after Southwest Airlines (Bowen, 2019). In 2018, the Airline ordered 50 Boeing 737 max 10 crafts, worth &6.24 billion. Currently the company has about 118 aircrafts, which are efficient even in fuel terms. Among them includes, Airbus A33 and A300, where five are operational, Airbus A330-900 neo, where two are operational, with eight orders. Also, the company boast in its flights the Boeing 737 family such as, 737-800, 737-900ER, 737MAX 8 and 9, where 111 are in services, while 193 are ordered. However, the fatal accident that involved the company’s Boeing 737 MAX, lead to the airline refusal of the ordered Boeing planes (KONERT, 2019).
The company is dedicated to creating a good rapport with its workforce, thus focus on establishing a good environment for its workforce. In addition, the Airline always seek to maintain its culture, improve fairness, as well as maintain inclusivity while observing diversity. The Airline promotes ethical conduct among its workforce, while also recognizing the role of every employee in the company. The Airline has an about 30000 employees, and provides frequent trainings to ensure safety for their workforce (Rifki, 2016).
Lion Air ownership and the government regulatory body
Notably, Lion Air is private owned corporations, which Rusdi Kirana was its co-founder, and served as the President Director up to 2014 (Al-Fadhat, 2019). Currently the Airline is headed by co-founder Kusnan Kirana. Besides, the Airline has a number of directors that check the flow of the Airline. However, despite the Airline being a privately owned corporation, it is under the regulation of the government, which monitors and seeks to promote safety of those travelling by the flights. The government regulates and ensures passengers in their aviation through the Ministry of Transport in the region (Henderson, 2009). The ministry is solely responsible for all transport activities in the region. In addition, the ministry imposes policies that ensure and promote safety of passengers. Therefore, the Lion Air receives its licenses from the Ministry of Transportation, and is accredited to serve the business people, as well as those with other objectives.
Certification requirements and flight time for deck crew members
The pilots of the Lion Air Company must meet the international standards for pilots. To ensure the standards are acquired, the Airline works closely with Angkasa Pilot Training. The Organisation is accredited with the responsibility of the training of the pilots of Lion Air, and also offers certification, including that form Directorate General of Civil Aviation in Indonesia, France, as well as from Civil Authority of Malaysia (Blegur et al., 2014). In addition, the pilots are required to undergo through re-certification in every six months, which is gained after re-training. Therefore, Angkasa Pilot Training does not only train new pilots, but also re-trains existing company pilots.
The cabin crew must also undergo through trainings on service, security and safety courses, where they acquire certification from the institution. In addition, the crew is also trained on mock ups of Boeing and Airbus planes. The crew members are trained till they acquire the DGCA standards, as well as those of the Airline. The re-training occurs annually. Pilots and crew have a lesser flight time compared to USA, which might play a key role to determining their experience on international level. The airline observers the pilots limit of FAA which indicates that pilots and crew should not surpass the flight minimum time of 110 Hours, in a month. However, there are claims that some pilots surpass time, which is risky.
Fleet leasing and ownership in Lion Air Company
Despite that the company begun by leasing aircrafts, today the Airline boast a number of largest planes in the world. The Airlines frequently astonish the world by making big orders of Airbus and Boeing 737 aircrafts. The company took loans from banks, and purchased different types of aircrafts. Most of its planes are in their custody, while a several are hired. This happened when the company bought 234 Airbus A320, and 230 jets from Boeing in 2013 ((Bowen, 2019). As a result of purchasing many planes, the company launched its own leasing company that leases aircrafts to the Lion Air Group. The Airline has more than 118 aircrafts, and have more the 400 orders. However, despite buying many of the flights, in recent years their leasing of planes has also increased.
Lion Air Safety and Economic Regulations
Lion Air is a public facility that is privately owned. Despite that the organization safety being ensured by a safety management team, which includes Managing director, development and quality, captain Aric Oh, and Corporate Safety, the Airline is under monitoring of many international organizations. The Airline is a member of the United Nations Organ known as International Civil Aviation Organization. The body is responsible for imposing policies as well as techniques for air navigation, thus checking safety and development. The body inspects flights, checks infrastructure, while also preventing interferences. In addition, the organ facilitates border closing of flights.
The Airline is also under close monitoring by International Air Transport Association, which sets measures and ethics of work in airlines. The mains functions of IATA is to impose industrial policies, and enforce them to member airlines. IATA regulates the pricings of the Airline, on the international levels, while the Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Indonesia regulates the domestic pricing and control (Pelupessy, 2019). The Lion air frequently submits itself to the IATA for audit. In addition, the routes are closely monitored by the transport ministry, which checks the operation of that Airline, its certifications and accidents involvement. The ministry can block a subsidiary of the Airline, when guidelines are not checked.
Besides, the Airline is also a subject of frequent monitoring by OEM such as Airbus, Honeywell and Boeing, as they hold offices in the Lion’s Operations Centre. The OEM ensures that the Airline observes the FAA standards, as well as checking the maintenance of their flights.
Accidents in Lion Air
The Airline has reported several incidences and accidents (Koto, 2019). For instance. In 2002, a Boeing 737-200 reported a problem with flap configuration, which resulted to its crashing during its take off at Sultan Syarif Kasim II International Airport. However, the crush did not lead to deaths, but it lead to the burn of the aircraft. In the year 2004, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 had an accident in Surakarta that resulted to the death of twenty five individuals. This was the second case reported by the Airline, in a span of two years. The issue was as a result of system failure. In addition, the same type of flight crashed at Juanda International Airport in the year 2006 which led to its damage, thus leading to its writing off as Koto (2019) indicated. The accident occurred due to use of reverse thrust, while the left thrust reverser was broken. In December of the same year, another incident occurred, where a Boeing 737-400 landed hard, due to incorrect flap, which lead to severe damage of the plane, despite causing no casualties.
In December 2010 a Boeing 737-400 ran out of the path at Supadio International Airport, way causing injuries and damage of the nose gear. In the year 2013, a Boeing 737-800 crashed in water as it tried to land at Rai International Airport (NURJANAH & Koestriandri, 2014). This resulted from the breakage of the craft fuselage into two. However, there were no facilities reported. In all the accidents, most of people were evacuated. Indonesian officials attributes short of the run way as the cause of the crush. The number of increased accidents drew the attention of the Ministry of Transport in Indonesia in 2015, leading to the revoke of some of its subsidiary. In the month of October 2018, a fatal accident occurred on a plane that belonged to the Airline. The accident involved a Boeing 737 MAX 8 that crushed two minutes after taking off from Jakarta. The plane had 189 individuals, and non-survived (Johnston & Harris, 2019). This was the most fatal accident reported by the Airline since its foundation in 2000. The exact cause of the accident is still not reported. However, many perceive that the accidents are caused by the malfunctioning of the airplane system, while others feel that the management of Boeing 737, or the Airline itself. Although one can understand most of the accidents reported are as a result of malfunctions of the turbo. The crush, of the flight, followed by another in less than half an year, led to criticize of the Boeing Max flights, leading to the block of their flights operation for closer check-up. To assess the possible causes of the fatal accident, understanding the Boeing 737 MAX is essential.
Description of the Boeing 737 MAX and perceived causes of the accident in 2018
The most recent model of the family is Boeing 737 Max that was developed in the year 2011. The craft has a lot of modifications. For instance, the craft is powered by developed CMF LEAP located in high bypass turbofans in wings of about 35.9m. Also the craft has a larger carrying capacity, which ranges from 138 to 204 seating capacity. 737Max was developed to compete with the Airbus A320neo family, which was powerful after its launching tin 2010 (Cruz & de Oliveira Dias, 2020). In addition, the developers 737 Max aimed at increasing flexibility, improving reliability, as well as increasing efficiency. The airplane has sculpted side walls, LED lighting, window reveals, and large storage bins. Also, the cockpit has well displayed pilot decks, with recent Boeing technology. The craft took its first flight in the year 2016, in January, which lead to its certification by FAA in the following year (Cruz & de Oliveira Dias, 2020).
The Boeing 737 max that caused the fatal accident in 2018, has many people attributing the accident on its failures (Cutler, 2019). For instance, some reports indicate that the flight developed issues before landing at Jakarta. This are due to weather reports that indicated the sky was clear. Some experts indicated that pilot tubes, used in the plane to indicate airspeed would have promoted the crush. Other report indicated that there was a problem with the sensors in the Angle of attack. Else, the CMF LEAP engines used in the 737MAX are placed in higher parts of the wings, which may have led to the destabilization of the angle of attack. Besides, the failure of Manoeuvring Characteristic Augmentation system used in the 737MAX is dependent on sensors, which their failure would contribute to the cause of an accident (Cutler, 2019). However, there are more claims that the accidents, may have resulted from undertraining of the maintenance team, or the pilots on the usage of Boeing 737Max.
Lion Air workers’ welfare and reported strikes
Lion Air, being a privately owned facility, most of its workers are not registered to the labour unions. The company does not restrict them from forming associations, but maybe the reluctance from the pilots and maintenance team may be a leading factor that limits registration of associations. However, the company is registered under the IATA, which monitors company ethics. Notably, the Airline has had few reported strikes, which may indicated satisfaction of its employees, thus allow association formation. Also, the Airline employs pilots on a two year contract, which is renewable depending on terms of agreement. Bleaching of contracts s controlled by the Law, thus pilots and maintenance crew may work less with associations. However, there is less evidence on this, unlike the other international Airline in Indonesia, which has well established labour unions. Lion air is observant of its employee’s welfare, which has resulted to less strikes.
Since the foundation of the Lion Air the organization has had few strikes observed from the workers. However, in 2016, there occurred a strike form the pilots. The pilots complained over unpaid payments, which resulted to delay of flights (Rifki, 2016). This called for the attention of the transportation ministry, which had continuously questioned the Airline over its budget. As a result, the company was sanctioned from adding new routes for the next six months. This tarnished the Airline’s name, as it was one of the fasts growing Airline in Southeast Asia. However, people have also reported delays in the company, which does not necessarily result from strikes, but is a factor that requires assessment as it might be a form of go slow by the workers.
Conclusion
Lion Air is one of the fastest developing Airline in the Southeast Asia. The privately owned company has many flights in its name, especially from the world largest aircraft companies such as Boeing, and Airbus. The Airline follows many routes, and has over a 100 aircraft that operates daily in its ground. It is the largest Airline in Indonesia, and the second highest custom of Boeing aircrafts. Since its foundation in 1999, the company has maintained its work ethics, and very few strikes have occurred in the company. However, the company continue to experience frequent accidents, causing fear, as well as affecting its reputation. The recent accident in 2018, involving Boeing 737max was lethal, and lead to 189 facilities. Consequently, more investigations are ongoing to determine the cause of the accidents. However, there are claims that the system failure of the plane, pilot errors, and inadequate training of the maintenance crew would have resulted to the accident. Therefore, Lion Air, must address the issue of its accidents, for its continued growth progress.
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