Lion Air’s slogan may be “We Make People Fly”, but recently it has made people wonder why two of its planes were spotted at a Russian airport — even though the carrier does not fly to Eastern Europe.
Turkey-based aviation Twitter account @HavaSosyalMedya on March 12 tweeted the following photo, showing two B737-900 aircrafts featuring the Lion Air livery parked at an undisclosed Russian airport.
Given that most Indonesians don’t speak Turkish and therefore could not understand the tweet, the picture certainly raised some questions in Indonesia. Thank the tech lords for Google Translate then, using which we managed to ascertain that Russia’s S7 Airlines had just received the two planes.
Prior to its country’s invasion of Ukraine, S7 made orders for Airbus and Boeing aircrafts, which were not delivered after trade embargoes were raised against Russia.
The planes are set to be painted in S7 colors. S7 is headquartered in the town of Ob in Novosibirsk Oblast.
On Tuesday, Lion Air spokesman Lanang Mandala said that the low cost carrier’s lease on the two aircrafts had run out and the planes were returned to the lessor, who was not named.
The lessor then delivered the planes to S7 Airlines for their next assignments. We hope the lions can acclimatize to the snow there.
