Lion Air to operate in Australia, Thailand

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesian airline Lion Air will soon expand its business by also operating in Australia and Thailand in cooperation with local companies, a spokesman said.

"A cooperation agreement with an Australian company in which 49 percent of the shares are owned by Lion and 51 percent by the Australian side is now in the making. Lion will base six of its aircraft in Australia," Lion Air President Director Rusdi Kirana said on Tuesday.

He said the joint venture in Australia would bear the name of Lion Air Australia and that in Thailand Lion Air Thailand. In Thailand, Lion would base four of its aircrafts.

The overseas expansion was not only motivated by commercial considerations but also a desire to prove that Indonesian airlines are also capable of operating outside the country, Rusdi said.

Australia and Thailand were chosen because procedures to obtain permits to set up an airline company in these countries were relatively easier for foreign investors.

Rusdi said the joint airline companies in Australia and Thailand would hopefully already be formed before 2014 by which time Lion Air would have acquired the 122 new Boeing 7737-900 ER liners it was ordering now.