AirJawi

## Status

Active

AirJawi is an Indonesian low-cost carrier (formerly a regional charter airline) based in Jakarta, Indonesia.

## History

AirJawi undertook its first commercial flight on 6 May 1991 in co-operation with Trigana Air Service. Initial services were established to Bandung, Surabaya and Jakarta, followed by Denpasar, Batam, Palembang, Makassar, Merauke, Jayapura and Ambon with former ex-Garuda Indonesia Fokker F28 Fellowship aircraft.

Subsequently, AirJawi agreed to further co-operative partnerships in Nusa Tenggara with Merpati Nusantara Airlines using Boeing 737-300s with a former ex-American Eagle ATR 72 added in April 2004. In June, a Boeing 737-400 was supplied on contract from Garuda Indonesia to service Kuala Lumpur-Jakarta. In late 2006 the 737-300 service was replaced by a Fokker 100 formerly operated by TAM Airlines.

The aircraft used on the commencement routes were American Eagle ATR 72-500s and a TAM Fokker 100.

In March 2008, arrangements with Singapore Airlines commenced with AirJawi acting both as a ticketing agent for SIA at their office in Singapore and operating AirJawi as a feeder service to a then-new one SIA Airbus A340-500 operating services linking Banda Aceh to Merauke and Palembang to Manado, the arrangements ended in 2013 following the A340-500's retirement.

In August 2009, AirJawi entered into a route subsidy agreement with the West Nusa Tenggara provincial government to provide services for the Mataram to Sumbawa and Mataram to Bima route. The subsidised services were provided 3 times per week. In November 2009 AirJawi established the second implementation of airline e-ticketing in East Nusa Tenggara, just behind TransNusa.

By December 2009, AirJawi had a fleet of 4 French built ATR 72-500s, which were sadly retired from service in 2018, these aircraft are currently flying for Firefly, a Malaysian airline.

In 2011, AirJawi introduced 2 brand new ATR 72-600, these aircraft were later retired from service in 2016 after being replaced by A320neos.

In 2014, AirJawi filed for bankruptcy protection under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law at the Supreme Court of Indonesia in March 2014 after reporting 5 billion Rupiahs in liabilities and debt. AirJawi later sold all of it's Fokker aircraft and half of the ATR fleet, the ATR aircraft returned to servIce in 2015 after the airline recovered from bankruptcy

In Early-2015, donations from Garuda Indonesia, Singapore Airlines, and Sriwijaya Air let AirJawi to pay it's debt after is filed for bankruptcy a year earlier, this lead AirJawi to reactive it's ATR aircraft and convert into a low-cost carrier and later ordered 45 Airbus A320-200s and 20 Airbus A320neos.

In 2018, AirJawi retired it's last ATR aircraft from service and welcomed it's first bAe 146 RJ100 into service previously operated by Swiss Airlines.

In 2021, AirJawi retired it's first ever Airbus A320 from service due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the aircraft was later disposed to Citilink.

## Accidents and incidents

* In 7 March 2004, an AirJawi ATR 72-500 was destroyed by fire at Soerkano-Hatta International Airport during unloading, all 42 people onboard safely evacuated but the aircraft was written off with it's tail destroyed and the aircraft was later scrapped.
* In 14 May 2010, AirJawi Flight 328 was a passenger flight between Bandung and Surabaya invloving an ATR 72-500 when it crash-landed at Surabaya due to a rudder glitch, all 18 people onboard survived but the plane's right wingtip was destroyed by fire and the landing gear collapsed, the aircraft was later repaired.
* In 19 October 2015, an AirJawi ATR 72-500 suffered a nose gear collapse during boarding, no one was inside the aircraft at the time and the flight was delayed, the aircraft was later repaired.
* In 11 April 2018, AirJawi Flight 117 was a passenger flight between Jakarta and Singapore when the Airbus A320-200 broke up mid-air due to maintenance error after the 4.6 year old A320 suffered a tail strike on landing back in June 5th, 2016. The plane later crashed into the Java Sea just 23 minutes after takeoff and all 130 people onboard died.

## Gallery

An Airbus A320-200 on approach to Jakarta, IndonesiaA former AirJawi ATR 72-500 taking-off from Medan, IndonesiaA former AirJawi Airbus A340-500 leased from Singapore Airlines at Changi Airport