Lion Air Suspends Scheduled Flights again due to COVID-19

Indonesia’s low cost carrier Lion Air has decided to suspend all of its scheduled flights once again for overseas and domestic routes from Friday (June 5) till further notice. The announcement from the airline came just after weeks of it resuming passenger flight operations which earlier remained suspended from April 24 to limit the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) through air travel.

Danang Mandala Prihantoro, spokesman for Lion Air, said, “The halt is to commence on June 5, 2020 until a further notice.”

As per his statement, The Lion Air group, which also includes Batik Air and Wings Air, are grounding its fleet from June 5. Lion Air operates fleet of 138 planes on a route network within Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia such as Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. Its units Batik Air and Wings Air have a combined fleet of 140 planes.

The decision of flight suspension was made because many passengers have failed to provide documents requested for flights during the virus outbreak to ensure that they are not suffering from any COVID-19 symptom and safe for the air travels.

Lion Air said in press release, “Many prospective passengers were unable to carry out air travel because they did not complete the required documents and conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic alert period.”

The aviation sector has been most affected by COVID-19 pandemic. The number of foreign holiday makers visiting Indonesia plunged by 87.44 per cent in April, according to data from the National Agency of Statistics.

As it is not decided when these flights will be rescheduled, Lion Air is offering refunds to passengers who had already booked their tickets but airline is not allowing anyone to make new reservations for the time being.

In regards to COVID-19 cases, the country has reported a total number of 28,233 confirmed cases and 1,698 deaths caused by virus. However, 8,406 patients tested positive for COVID-19 have completely recovered, as of Thursday (June 4).