Lion Air (JT, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) has so far lost about USD20 million due to the grounding of its B737-8s, Lion Air Group Operations Director Daniel Putut told the Antara newswire.
Putut underlined that the LCC is currently waiting for the approval of the Indonesian Ministry of Transportation to start implementing the upgrades prepared by Boeing. He refrained from naming any tentative dates for the resumption of the B737 MAX 8 flights.
Lion Air in Indonesia has ten grounded B737 MAX 8s left after it lost one unit in an October 2018 fatal crash near Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta. Thai Lion Air (SL, Bangkok Don Mueang) has three additional B737-9 grounded at Bangkok Don Mueang and Kuala Lumpur Subang.
Lion Air did not resort to wet-leasing and is currently exclusively operating its flights using its in-house fleet which also includes thirty-eight B737-800s and sixty-five B737-900(ER)s, as well as three widebody A330-300s.
