Lion Air in the News

"We make people fly," and Lion Air flies the Boeing 747 between Jakarta and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

More than six months ago this blog had a post about the Indonesian airline Lion Air. The company is now a little bit better known in the United States this week after putting in a massive order for 230 Boeing aircraft. The airline was started in 1999 by travel agent Rusdi Kirana and his brother. They are planning to expand their route map all over Southeast and East Asia:

The once little-known Indonesian airline says it is planning to buy 230 planes from Boeing Co. The bill — with a list price of $21.7 billion — is to be paid over 12 years though bank financing.
Dozens of airlines have emerged in Indonesia since it deregulated its aviation industry in the 1990s, making air travel affordable for the first time for many across the sprawling island nation of 240 million, and luring passengers away from ferries and trains.

Nonstop Time Lapse

SF to Paris in Two Minutes from Beep Show on Vimeo.

Somebody, please put me on one of these time-lapse planes next time I have to cross the Pacific. Either that or get me a stasis pod.

A Wing and a Prayer

We would now like to ask all passengers to please fasten their seat belts and beg for mercy from the deity of your choosing.

The Passengers returned yesterday from a long weekend on the Indonesian island of Lombok. The Chinese New Year holiday gave us five days away from Singapore in a place south of the equator and just on the earthly side of paradise. We will post some pictures in the coming weeks. However, to get to Lombok we flew through Jakarta on Lion Air, an Indonesian carrier previously unknown to me.

A religious pick-n-mix.

I am happy to report that service on Lion Air was safe and efficient, consistent with many budget airlines, though not as shiny as AirAsia or Easyjet. The surest sign that we had left the plush world of Singapore and its pampered flagship airline: the invocation card in the seatback pocket. The card carries a list of prayers that passengers might want to say before take-off. Invocations are available for Muslims (Indonesia's largest religious group), Protestants, Catholics, Hindus, Buddhists, and Confucians. Our Jewish traveling companions had to make up their own divine petitions.

Something for the rest of Asia.

Click on the images of the invocation card for larger pictures of the prayers. It's  kind of like a Rosetta Stone with prayers repeated in several languages, including English. When pronouncing written Bahasa Indonesia say all the letters. It's a relatively straightforward and pleasing language. Khonghucu, the last type of prayer listed, should be translated to English as Confucianism. Notice also that no one bothered to write the Confucian prayer in Chinese characters. It's a pamphlet of reassurance with only modestly reassuring execution. The one in my seatback pocket was torn so I took it as my excuse to disobey that "Mohon kartu ini jangan di bawa pulang" badge.