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espite several cases of alleged narcotics use by its pilots, privately owned airline Lion Air was able to grab the largest market share of airline passengers throughout 2011.

Based on recent Transportation Ministry data, Lion Air’s domestic passengers reached 24.97 million, or equal to 41.59 percent of the total domestic market, while its inter-national passengers totaled 961,800, taking 11.8 percent of the international market for Indonesian airlines.

A Lion Air pilot was arrested last month in his hotel room in Surabaya, East Java, with 0.04 grams of crystal meth in his possession. He allegedly tested positive to the drug in a urine test. The Transportation Ministry has revoked Syaiful’s pilot’s license. The arrest followed another arrest of a Lion Air pilot in Makassar, South Sulawesi in January and a cabin crew member in April last year, both for the possesion of methamphetamine.

National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia came in second place by carrying 18.76 million passengers on its domestic routes last year; 22.82 percent of the total-market share. Garuda’s international passengers amounted to 3.2 million; 38.03 percent of the international-market share.

Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said that Indonesia saw a 16.78 percent increase of airline passengers last year, up from 58.39 million in 2010 to 68.19 million in 2011.

The number of domestic passengers was 60.04 million, a 15.92 percent increase compared to 2010’s 51.77 million. International passengers reached 8.15 million, a 23.24 percent increase from 2010’s 6.61 million.

“Better economic conditions increased Indonesians’ purchasing power last year, thus, they prefer to travel by air rather than other means of transportation,” Bambang told The Jakarta Post over the wee end.

He also said that airlines were able to increase fleet capacity, enabling them to add more flight frequency to their existing schedules as well as open new routes.

According to ministry data, last year there were 26 new domestic routes and five international routes opened that connected different cities across the archipelago, among which were Bandung–Semarang, Denpasar–Malang, Medan–Surabaya, Jakarta–Shenzen, Jakarta–Nanning and Semarang–Kuala Lumpur.

Privately owned Sriwijaya Air took third place by carrying 7.38 million domestic passengers, or equal to 13.2 percent of the domestic-market share. For international routes, Sriwijaya took only 2.25 percent of the total share with 183,838 passengers.

In addition, ministry data said that Batavia Air passengers reached almost 7 million; 6.75 million domestic passengers, 11.25 percent of the domestic share, and 292,280 international passengers, a 3.59 percent of the 2011 international share.

The ailing Merpati Nusantara Airlines ranked fifth by carrying 2.18 million passengers, or 3.64 percent of the domestic-market share. Merpati did not carry any international travelers, as the airline is only a domestic player.

AirAsia Indonesia (AAI) only became an international carrier in Indonesia last year. AAI was able to carry 3.38 million passengers, or 41.58 percent of the international market, making them the strongest international player throughout 2011.

However, this year, AAI is trying to win the hearts of domestic passengers by opening three domestic routes; Bandung – Surabaya, Bali – Surabaya, and Jakarta – Semarang.

Lion Air’s feeder, Wings Air, came in at the bottom with 1.98 million domestic passengers, or equal to 3.37 percent of the total domestic share.

Bambang said that the ministry was still sticking to their target of a 15 percent increase of airline passengers this year, despite rising oil prices and global political unrest.