The Thai arm of one of the world's largest low-cost airlines, Indonesia's Lion Air, was established in 2013 and is based at Bangkok's Don Mueang Airport, where it competes with Air Asia. In just a few years of operation, it has built a dense network of domestic routes across Thailand and international connections to neighbouring countries.

The ever-expanding fleet included 30 mostly brand new Boeing 737s and a few large-capacity Airbus A330s at the start of 2018.