Thai Lion Air

Is Thai Lion Air safe?

Yes. Thai Lion Air has flown 737s out of Bangkok's Don Mueang airport for more than a decade without an accident: no deaths, no aircraft written offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary and no landing that damaged a jet. It is an IATA member, which requires the IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary safety audit, and Thailand has been back in the FAA's top category since April 2025. We score it 78. The catch is one serious runway error at Hanoi in 2020 and a fleet of 737s that is no longer young.

How is it linked to Lion Air?

Thai Lion Air uses the brand and colours of Indonesia's Lion Group, but the airline is a Thai company, Thai Lion Mentari, with its own air operator's certificate from the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT). Thai law caps foreign ownership of an airline at 49%, so the group cannot own it outright.

That matters for the record. Lion Air, the Indonesian parent brand, scores 62 because of the 2018 737 MAX crash and a string of written-off jets. None of those flights were Thai Lion Air's: they were flown by Indonesian crews under an Indonesian certificate. We count each accident on the airline that flew it, so Thai Lion Air's record is its own. The same applies the other way: a Thai Lion Air incident does not lower Lion Air's score.

When ICAO raised a significant safety concern about Thailand in 2015, every Thai airline had to be recertified. Thai Lion Air finished in July 2017, the eighth large Thai airline to do so, along with Thai Smile and after Thai Airways, Nok Air, Bangkok Airways and others (ch-aviation). The regulator has improved since: in ICAO's 2025 audit Thailand reached 88.03% effective implementationICAO USOAPICAO's audit of how well each country's aviation regulator oversees safety. The result is an "effective implementation" percentage.More in the glossary, up from 61.60%.

What happened at Hanoi in 2020?

On 6 January 2020, flight SL180, a Boeing 737-900 from Bangkok, landed on runway 11L at Hanoi's Noi Bai airport, turned off and was told to hold short of the parallel runway, 11R. At the same time a Vietnam Airlines A321 was accelerating on 11R for a flight to Phu Quoc. The A321 crew saw the 737 cross the hold-short line and rejected the take-off at about 150 knots, 16 knots short of the speed at which it would have had to continue. It slowed safely and turned off the runway about 900 metres before the taxiway where the 737 had crossed the line.

No one was hurt, but this is the kind of event that investigators classify as serious: two aircraft on one runway with a high-speed abort as the only defence. No final report has been published that we could find, so the reason for the crossing is not on record. It is the main reason incidents score 62.

Other incidents

AeroInside, which compiles investigation and news reports, lists four more events:

• 10 April 2016: a 737-900 from Chiang Rai lost cabin pressure climbing through 37,000 feet near Chiang Mai.
• 12 May 2018: a 737 MAX 9 with 169 people on board shut down an engine after leaving Chiang Mai.
• 24 November 2023: a 737-800 bound for Chiang Rai shut down its right engine after bangs and flames on the climb out of Don Mueang and landed back 30 minutes later. A passenger said the captain reported flying through birds.
• 20 August 2014: the first officer of a 737-900 from Hat Yai collapsed at 34,000 feet; the captain returned to Hat Yai alone and landed safely, but the 47-year-old was dead on arrival at hospital.

Engine shutdowns that end in a normal landing are what pilots train for, and we weigh them lightly. The 2014 death was a medical event, not an accident caused by the aircraft or how it was flown, so it does not count in the accident score. Thai investigators publish few reports, and late, so a short list from Thailand is not proof of a clean record.

How old are Thai Lion Air's planes?

Older than its rivals'. In September 2025 ch-aviation counted 21 737-800s averaging 10.7 years and nine 737-900ERs averaging 12.7 years. The four jets added in 2025 were dry leases, flown by its own crews; two more 900ERs were due by the end of 2025 and four to five more aircraft in 2026. Thai Lion Air had planned 40 aircraft but shelved the target when demand was weaker than expected, and it says it will stay an all-Boeing narrow-body airline. The 737 MAX 9s it flew from 2018 are not in the 2025 count.

The 737-800 and 737-900ER have long, good records worldwide. They lack the fly-by-wireFly-by-wireA flight control system in which the pilot's inputs go to computers, which then move the control surfaces. Many such systems also stop unsafe manoeuvres.More in the glossary controls and newer systems of the A320neo or the 737 MAX, and at 11 to 13 years they need more maintenance than new jets, which is why the fleet scores 66, a little below Nok Air's 737-800s.

How to fly Thai Lion Air safely

• Check the code on Lion Group tickets. SL is the Thai airline; JT, ID and OD are Lion Air, Batik Air and Batik Air Malaysia, with different regulators and records.
• Allow time on international connections. Thai Lion Air cut its India flights from mid-September 2026 to a planned restart in mid-December, and it adjusts routes quickly to demand.
• Book morning flights in the wet season to northern and north-eastern Thai airports. Thunderstorms build in the afternoon from May to October, and that is when diversions and rough approaches are most likely.

How we scored it

The accident record (90) carries the score: no deaths, no write-offsHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary and no damaging accident. Incidents (62) are the weak factor, for the Hanoi runway crossing and the engine and pressure events, together with Thailand's thin reporting. The fleet (66) is held back by the age of the 737NGs. Compare Nok Air at 78 and the AirAsia group at 69.