Lion Air cancelling a 22 billion Dollar aircraft order

Lion Air doesn’t trust Boeing and the owner of Indonesia’s largest low cost airline is taking safety over an economic loss. It appears he thinks Boeings reaction to the deadly crash of their Boeing 737 MAX was unethical, and apparently he lost trust in the U.S. aviation manufacturer. Lion Air is the first major carrier openly voicing serious doubts about the safe operation of the Boeing 737 MAX.

Bloomberg reported:

Lion Air Mentari’s owner is sketching out plans to become one of the world’s largest budget carriers, while also preparing to scrap $22 billion in Boeing Co. jet orders out of anger at the manufacturer’s response to an October air disaster.

Rusdi Kirana, the co-founder of Lion Air, Indonesia’s biggest airline, mapped out the seemingly contradictory goals in an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday. The crash that killed all 189 people aboard a Boeing 737 Max won’t derail his ambition to expand the budget carrier to an eventual fleet of 1,000 aircraft, he said. Lion Air may also list its Indonesian unit in 2019, he added.

source: eTN