Lion Group Plans to Make Island Close to Singapore a Major Hub

Lion Group has decided to make Batam, an island in Indonesia with very close proximity to Singapore, as its second major hub after Jakarta.

The group in recent months has increased the number of domestic destinations it serves from Batam to 15 and aims to eventually serve 20 domestic destinations in Indonesia from Batam.

Lion Air will, for example, be launching a daily non-stop service on 29 January from Batam to Pontianak using Boeing 737-800s and has plans to launch a Batam-Makassar and Batam-Bali Denpasar service.

“Batam is ideally located for people wishing to travel between eastern and western Indonesia,” said Lion Group president director, Rusdi Kirana. “The distance is actually shorter if you transit in Batam rather than flying further south to Jakarta to transit. This is a ‘win-win’ for consumers and for the airline. The shorter flying time makes flying more convenient for passengers and it means aircraft burn less fuel, leading to significant cost savings.”

International passengers will benefit too, because next year Lion Group plans to launch international services from Batam.

Overseas destinations it aims to serve from Batam include points in southern China such as Guangzhou and Hong Kong. It also plans to serve Bangkok (Thailand) and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) from Batam, as well as destinations in India, such as New Delhi and Mumbai. The flying distance from Batam to Northeast Asia and India is shorter than Jakarta.