Lion Group to move to Changi’s Terminal 4, launch daily flights to Subang, Ipoh and Penang

SINGAPORE – Lion Group will be moving its operations to Changi Airport’s Terminal 4 and will launch daily flights to Subang, Ipoh and Penang.

The group comprises Batik Air Indonesia, Batik Air Malaysia and Thai Lion Air.

It currently operates at Terminal 3 and will move in November; the new flights will start in December.

The move to Changi’s Terminal 4 will “cater to Lion Group’s future growth and better serve rising air travel demand in the region”, said the group on Sept 22.

Following the relocation, there will be 10 full-service and 10 low-cost carriers operating out of Terminal 4.

The launch of the Subang flights by full-service airline Batik Air Malaysia follows existing flights to and from the destination operated by low-cost carriers Scoot and Firefly.

Subang’s airport is closer than Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) to the Kuala Lumpur city centre, located at a distance of about 25km away, compared with KLIA’s 60km.

The Kuala Lumpur-Singapore corridor was the world’s fourth-busiest international route in 2024 and the busiest in 2023, according to data from flight analytics platform OAG.

Firefly currently flies to Singapore’s Seletar Airport from Subang with turboprop aircraft. In August, it ceased jet aircraft operations at Subang and opted to fly its daily Changi route from KLIA instead.

Scoot chief executive Leslie Thng earlier in September also told the New Straits Times that his airline is “interested” in expanding its flights to Subang, if allowed by the Malaysian authorities.

Batik Air Malaysia has four daily flights between KLIA and Changi.

The larger Lion Group currently has 88 weekly services that connect Singapore to Jakarta, Bali, Medan, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.

More expansion from Thailand is in the pipeline, with Thai Lion Air stating that it will add flights to Singapore from more Thai cities beyond Bangkok.

THE BUSINESS TIMES