Malindo Airways ( Lion Air) in a partnership with Malaysia's National Aerospace & Defence Industries.
Several interesting key points were made in the event Malindo Airways will provide a hybrid service (between LCC and full service airliner).
Base will initially by at KLIA2, the future home of Air Asia Malaysia
Malindo Airlines Booking and cheap flights will start in May 2013 with 12 737-900ERs with 13 business class seats and 169 economy Ma, with IFE and WiFi.
Malindo Airways aims to add 15 aircraft a year and hit 102 aircraft in 11 years.
787s will be introduced in 2015 and prices for plane tickets and services is aimed to be on par if not lower than Air Asia. What this means for Malindo Airways and possible factors,
Lion Air sees that its growth in Indonesia needs to slow down due to infrastructure limitations such as airport aircraft parking space are running out nationwide.
Malindo Airways still have A LOT of aircraft to be delivered, and they have to be used somewhere, these aircraft will now go to Malindo and to a certain extent, Batik Airlines.
The 787s stored for Batik Airways is likely to go to Malindo Airways first, Lion air is negotiating for more 787s for Batik Airways.
Lion Airlines sees that if it wants rapid growth, it must be done outside Indonesia. This is nothing new to Lion Air, but previous attempts to set up subsidiaries outside Indonesia have so far failed (in my opinion, due to picking the wrong aviation partners). Malindo Airways seems to be the most realistic one yet (and I believe it will happen).
Growth on the premium sector through Batik Airlines will not be as rapid as desired, again, due to limitations on infrastructure in Indonesian landscape. This announcement effectively put an end to the previous rumored Malaysian joint partnership, Lion Berjaya Airlines (And unless there's another announcement, Lion Air Australia is effectively not going to happen). On the Malindo Airways competitors is Air Asia will now have serious competition. Insiders have said that Air Asia's Tony Fernandes isn't afraid of Malindo Airways in Indonesia, but sees non-LCC developments of Lion Air (such as Malindo and Batik Airlines) as a threat.