Thai Lion Air

Thai Lion Air is a Thai low-cost airline based at Don Mueang International Airport, Bangkok's older airport. The operating company is Thai Lion Mentari Co. Ltd, and its head office is in Bangkok's Don Mueang district. Wikipedia describes it as operating with Thai partners as an associate company of Indonesia's Lion Air, and lists it as part of Lion Air Group. It flies Boeing 737s on domestic Thai routes and on international routes, mainly within Asia.

Beginnings

The airline's first flight, Bangkok to Chiang Mai, took place on 4 December 2013, and full services started the following day. On 10 December 2013 it reached an agreement with Malindo Air, another Lion Air Group airline that now flies as Batik Air Malaysia, allowing both to serve the route between Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. Wikipedia lists Taipei Taoyuan as a second base, alongside Don Mueang.

Network

Wikipedia's destination table, dated September 2025, covers domestic routes across Thailand and international flights to China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam; several of the listed routes have since ended. As of October 2026 the airline's website was promoting routes including Bangkok to Guangzhou, Shanghai, Sapporo and Penang, and Taipei to Okinawa. Its homepage also carried terminal notices: Thai Lion Air flights use Terminal 2 at Hong Kong from 28 May 2026, Terminal 3 at Guangzhou Baiyun from 22 January 2026, and Terminal 3A at Chongqing. It has interline agreements with Lion Air and APG Airlines.

Fleet

Thai Lion Air flies two versions of the Boeing 737: the 737-800 with 189 seats and the larger 737-900ER with 215 seats. A Wikipedia fleet table dated August 2025 lists 28 aircraft, 20 of them 737-800s and eight 737-900ERs.

Fares from July 2026

The airline introduced new fare families for sales from 16 July 2026, for travel from the same date:

• Lion Saver: cabin baggage only, no checked bag.
• Lion Value: a checked bag, plus snacks and water.
• Lion Flexi: a larger checked allowance, a meal, seat selection and one free change, with any fare difference payable.

Fare tiers cannot be upgraded after booking, but extra baggage, seats and meals can still be bought separately. In October 2026 the airline joined a Tourism Authority of Thailand campaign that gave a discount on domestic Thai Lion Air flights booked online between 15 October and 15 December 2026, for travel up to 15 January 2027.