Lion Group Seeking Partners for Training Centre

Indonesia’s Lion Group is seeking international partners for its training organizations – the Wings Flying School and the Lion Training Centre.

Lion Group president director, Rusdi Kirana, said the company would like to partner with internationally-certified and recognized training organizations that have European Safety Agency and/or US FAA certification.

Lion Group’s subsidiaries include Lion Air, Wings Air and Batik Air. Lion Air is one of Indonesia’s largest airlines and mostly operates Boeing 737-900ERs and 737-800s. Wings Air has a fleet of ATR 72-500s and ATR 72-600s. Batik Air has a fleet of 737-900ERs.

Lion Group also owns 49% of Malaysian carrier Malindo Air, which operates 737-900ERs and ATR 72-600s.

The investments that Lion has recently made in training include a firm order for 20 Cessna 172 trainer aircraft for the Wings Flying School. It also has options for 20 more Cessna 172s and plans to steadily turn these options into firm orders as the delivery slots draw near. The Wings Flying School forecasts that it will have 60-70 graduates this year and around 150 graduates next year. This is achievable because of the new Cessna 172 trainer aircraft that are being delivered.

The Lion Training Centre added its third 737-900ER simulator in July. It also has one ATR 72-500 simulator. Lion’s simulator centre is at ‘Lion Village’, near Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. The simulator centre has seven full-time instructors, all foreigners that come from a mix of places, including Europe and the U.S..