Not sure what's happening but Malindo Air is transferring its brand new 737 MAX aircraft to Lion Air.

Malindo Air will transfer its Boeing 737 Max aircraft to Indoneisan's Lion Air after four months of service.

A source confirmed the plan to FlightGlobal, but was unable to explain what led to the carrier's decision to cease operating the re-engined variant of the 737. Attempts to contact Lion Air Group were unsuccessful.

Flight Fleets Analyzer showed that Malindo received the first aircraft in May, registered 9M-LRC. It was also the first to be delivered to a commercial operator. In the subsequent two months, it received -LRD and -LRF. Except for -LRD, two aircraft was transferred to Lion Air in recent weeks.

Full article
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... it-441507/

Well that didn´t last long....

I suspect that it is the aircraft's single economy class configurations that is causing a few problems.

In the early days of operations, Malindo Air used the aircraft on its routes usually served by B738s that have business class seats. When business class passengers checked in for their flights, they were allocated normal economy seats with little or no explanation or service recovery options. That caused a lot of problems for all concerned.

Malindo Air is a full service carrier and it was strange that it received aircraft more suitable for LCCs (which Lion Air is). I think that Malindo Air will not take any more aircraft that does not have business class. The A330s are rumoured to be carrying single class economy configurations too. Perhaps that is why it is more suited for Thai Lion (another LCC).

Malindo Air will have to rethink its fleet expansion again. It seems to me that there is some issue within the Lion Group and that aircraft are simply pushed around the group without any real concrete plans for operating them.

The reasons for these new aircraft "moving around the fleet" are, but not limited to:
1. Taxation and lease requirements.
2. Indonesian regulatory requirements. To get aircraft imported is easy, to get it approved for operations, is a different animal. Sometimes, an aircraft destined for Lion can't get government approval (lack of inspectors, or just paperwork nightmare, or someone sneezed at the wrong time in the meeting with the regulators), that it becomes easier to get it sent to one carrier for a few weeks, then bring it to another. Even this happens between Lion Indonesia and Batik Air.
3. The Max is needed for the Indonesia - China and the upcoming Indonesia - Jeddah charters (in addition to the 330s), for their range.
4. Another factor is Batik Air's expansion to Australia and other countries has resulted in a couple of fleet planning hiccups, as the 320s aren't ETOPS approved, while their 737s are easier to get the ETOPS approval. This totally screws up the A320 fleet expansion plans for Batik... hence we started seeing these weird fleet migrations.
5. Yeah, well, single class Max on Malindo, is the same as the single class Max on Batik... But then we knew where they were going to go once we knew of the cabin config... Lion Indo... why? See the above points.

This was known awhile ago in the 737 MAX production thread. Operation of the MAX stopped months ago.

2 of the aircraft, 9M-LRC and 9M-LRF are already in service with Lion Air as PK-LQK and PK-LQM respectively. 9M-LRD flew to SZB 2 days ago to begin its transfer to JT.

"Name the first 737 MAX operator" would make a good quiz question in a few years. I bet few could remember!

mandala499 wrote:

The reasons for these new aircraft "moving around the fleet" are, but not limited to:
1. Taxation and lease requirements.
2. Indonesian regulatory requirements. To get aircraft imported is easy, to get it approved for operations, is a different animal. Sometimes, an aircraft destined for Lion can't get government approval (lack of inspectors, or just paperwork nightmare, or someone sneezed at the wrong time in the meeting with the regulators), that it becomes easier to get it sent to one carrier for a few weeks, then bring it to another. Even this happens between Lion Indonesia and Batik Air.
3. The Max is needed for the Indonesia - China and the upcoming Indonesia - Jeddah charters (in addition to the 330s), for their range.
4. Another factor is Batik Air's expansion to Australia and other countries has resulted in a couple of fleet planning hiccups, as the 320s aren't ETOPS approved, while their 737s are easier to get the ETOPS approval. This totally screws up the A320 fleet expansion plans for Batik... hence we started seeing these weird fleet migrations.
5. Yeah, well, single class Max on Malindo, is the same as the single class Max on Batik... But then we knew where they were going to go once we knew of the cabin config... Lion Indo... why? See the above points.

That just speaks of poor operational planning.

But aren't LionAir and Malindo part of the same group? There's also Thai LionAir and I always thought Malindo was just the name for LionAir Malaysia. They all got the same tail logo anyway.

PatrickZ80 wrote:

But aren't LionAir and Malindo part of the same group? There's also Thai LionAir and I always thought Malindo was just the name for LionAir Malaysia. They all got the same tail logo anyway.

Lion Air Group would be the parent company.

jeffrey0032j wrote:

That just speaks of poor operational planning.

In a way, yes, but the Indonesian regulator has a lot to do with that. The haphazard knee jerk reactions by the regulators after the Air Asia crash (thanks to the then minister) has really made it extremely difficult for airlines to plan. In 2015 the ministry itself issued more than 1 new regulation per day causing the transportation industry to be in turmoil. Aviation itself received about 2 new regulations per week back then, and some overriding a rule that was issued a few weeks before. Airlines can't deal with that, and are still trying to catch up on the implementation. That added with market price controls, has really stretched the airlines beyond its limits and also the regulators, as airlines can't simply just get more staff to deal with it and pass the buck to the customer. And yeah, the market stalled in 2015... growth was only 0.5%...
Accident rates also doubled in 2015-2016 as a result. That minister was finally replaced in mid 2016, but we're still recovering from that period... airlines and regulators alike.

The above is why the Max went around through Malindo... As for Batik's A320 n NG expansion vs ETOPS saga, well, more on the airline (although again, the regulators had it's had in the mess too).

The thread title is misleading if not untrue. No where does it say that MAX operations are ending. Aircraft are being transferred from one company to another for reasons explained above.

Side track a bit on how messy the Lion Air Group is: the three A330-343Es slated for Batik Air Malaysia/Malindo will now go to Thai Lion Air as the latter has secured flying rights to Shanghai. So the Batik Air livery on A330-343E now at Toulouse will be repainted into Thai Lion Air. Batik Air Malaysia/Malindo is now the forgotten stepson of Lion Air Group. No non-stop KUL-JED and KUL-BNE as planned earlier.

Malindo is running up huge debts with airport operators in Asia too. Hopefully they can decide on what they are. Charging less than air Asia for a ‘full’ service product isn’t sustainable.

I bet Malindo is one of the few operators in the world to have a B739ER parked up at KLIA seemingly being cannabilised for components, was great for the company image seeing it parked up with plastic covering missing fuselage and flap components, she's been moved to near the Cargo terminal now.

9M-LNL hasn't flown since March 17......

The Air India of Malaysia.

rotating14 wrote:

The thread title is misleading if not untrue. No where does it say that MAX operations are ending. Aircraft are being transferred from one company to another for reasons explained above.

Title is fine, MAX ops are ending for the foreseeable future.... We don’t know when’s Malindo will get them again.

flee wrote:

I suspect that it is the aircraft's single economy class configurations that is causing a few problems.

In the early days of operations, Malindo Air used the aircraft on its routes usually served by B738s that have business class seats. When business class passengers checked in for their flights, they were allocated normal economy seats with little or no explanation or service recovery options. That caused a lot of problems for all concerned.

Malindo Air is a full service carrier and it was strange that it received aircraft more suitable for LCCs (which Lion Air is). I think that Malindo Air will not take any more aircraft that does not have business class. The A330s are rumoured to be carrying single class economy configurations too. Perhaps that is why it is more suited for Thai Lion (another LCC).

Malindo Air will have to rethink its fleet expansion again. It seems to me that there is some issue within the Lion Group and that aircraft are simply pushed around the group without any real concrete plans for operating them.

I do feel the same way about it. I got a little confused that Business Class seats were not for sale on the 7M8 flights. If they had a 2-class layout, it would be a nice fit for flights like KUL-DPS-BNE although pushing the aircraft to do KUL-BNE nonstop is too risky and possibly impossible due to the small margin left to maximum range.

winterlight wrote:

"Name the first 737 MAX operator" would make a good quiz question in a few years. I bet few could remember!

I'll be the latter because I was on the inaugural