Lion Air

Lion Air is Indonesia's biggest low-cost operation, running a vast domestic web across the archipelago from Jakarta alongside regional international flying. The product decision was made long ago and applied without exception: one class, as many seats as the airframe allows, fares priced accordingly.

The published fleet pairs Boeing 737-800s and 737-900ERs at the full fit for each type with Airbus A330-900neos in two all-economy layouts that rank among the densest of the type anywhere. There is no cabin to buy your way into, which leaves seat position as the only lever a traveller controls, and makes it worth pulling properly.

The 737s are the everyday machines: three-by-three cabins with the room concentrated at the bulkhead rows and the overwing exits. The stretched 900ER adds a further band of longer-legged rows aft at its extra exit, useful on a cabin that long.

The A330-900neo is the statement aircraft: nine seats across in a three-three-three where full-service carriers fit eight, in a single economy class from the first row to the last. It is a very large aircraft filled entirely with economy, and it repays anyone who books early and precisely.

The experience is transport in its plainest form: slim seats, tight pitch, buy-on-board catering and no premium cabin pulling the average up. On the widebody the nine-abreast layout means seats run narrower than the A330's two-four-two norm, a fact that grows in importance with every hour of the sector.

Row numbers skip thirteen and fourteen throughout the fleet, so the back sounds further away than it is. Beyond that the cabins are simple to read: the exits and bulkheads are the product, and everything else is a position on a long grid.

Buy the exit row on anything over a couple of hours; it is the one real gain in space on board and cheap insurance on cabins this full. On the 737s the bulkhead pairs at the nose carry marked legroom and a couple of wing-area window seats look at panel rather than sky, while the last row of the 800 runs slightly narrower where the fuselage tapers.

On the A330-900neo, the front row and the section-break bands are worth real money. The window rows missing their panes cluster near the wing, and the deep tail pairs the busiest lavatory traffic with the longest wait for the door. Book forward and take an aisle or a window. The innermost seats of the centre block are the ones to plan around.