Adam Air - History

History

Adam Air was founded in 2002 by Agung Laksono, a well-known Indonesian businessman and the speaker of Indonesia's House of Representatives, and Sandra Ang.

The airline was established in 2004 and began operations on 19 December 2003 with 2 Boeing 737 aircraft leased from GE Commercial Aviation Services. It is named after Adam Adhitya Suherman, son of Sandra Ang.

Adam Air had been involved in talks with multiple private investors, including discussions about the sale of a 20% stake to Qantas, a takeover bid from private equity fund Texas Pacific Group, and a planned initial public offering in Singapore. However, foreign investment interest evaporated with the crash of Flight 574.

Indonesian investment firm PT Bhakti Investama Tbk expressed an interest in acquiring Adam Air. The company already owned a stake in PT Indonesia Air Transport Tbk, a subsidiary of Pt Media Nusantara Citra Tbk, and president Hary Djaja says that "Given our experience with IAT, which has an excellent safety record, we're certain that we will be able to create positive synergies and improve the way Adam Air is run,". Adam Air ultimately sold a fifty percent stake of itself to PT Bhakti Investama.

Gerry Soejatman, an aviation consultant, stated that Adam Air provided a "fresh image" and therefore was successful. Soejatman mentioned the "bright colors" associated with the airline, the aircraft being painted in "fantastic orange," and the crew members wearing "flashy uniforms." Soejatman described Adam Air as having "everything right going for them."

Following the crash of Adam Air Flight 292 in Batam, PT Bhakti Investama and a business consortium, Bright Star Perkasa which together own 50 percent shares in Adam Air planned to bail out on their investments and sell their shares back to the carrier's founders, Suherman and Sandra Ang. Henry Suparman, investor relations official at Bhakti Investama did not cite any specific safety incident at Adam Air but said that after nearly one year of investing in Adam Air, Bhakti had not seen any significant progress in the airline's handling of safety issues.

Their fleet (according to airfleets.net) consisted entirely of Boeing 737's with 4 Boeing 737-200's, 3 737-300's (one written off), and 7 737-400's (one written off). One 735, 5 734s, 3 733s, and 2 732s were sold prior to the airline's grounding/shutdown.