Mandarin Airlines

History

Mandarin Airlines was established on 1 June 1991, and was initially a joint venture by China Airlines (67%) and Koos Group (33%); the Chinese name of the company is formed by the combination of the two. The establishment of Mandarin Airlines is closely related to the political status of Taiwan. At the time, Mandarin Airlines' parent company, China Airlines, still served as the flag carrier of the Governing Authorities on Taiwan, with the flag of the Republic of China a part of its livery. Denying the existence of the Taipei government, the People's Republic of China hence attempted to boycott the international presence of China Airlines, using trade barriers to achieve its political goal. However, PRC's objection did not extend to other Taiwanese carriers not carrying the ROC flag. As a way to work around these limits, Mandarin Airlines was founded while China Airlines maintained its role as the flag carrier.

On 16 October 1991, Mandarin Airlines started operations with direct flights from Taipei to Sydney in Australia. The next step was the opening of a direct air route to Vancouver in Canada on 7 December 1991. Thus, Mandarin Airlines became Taiwan's first airline to fly direct to Australia and Canada. The China Trust Group pulled its investment in Mandarin Airlines on 31 October 1992, turning the airline into a company virtually wholly owned by China Airlines (90.05%) by December 1992. Also, Mandarin Airlines' role was changed to that of a primary domestic and short-range intra-regional airline, after parent China Airlines was able to re-establish its emphasis on international routes, due to a new livery that did not include the national flag, and thus faced less objection from the PRC.

On 8 August 1999, China Airlines formally merged its subsidiary, Mandarin Airlines, with Formosa Airlines under the Mandarin name. Mandarin took over Formosa's domestic operations and aircraft while Mandarin's fleet and most of its international flights were transferred to China Airlines. In early 2000, the airline bought 5 Dornier 228 from Uni Air to fly outlying routes. These planes were sold to Daily Air in 2005, a helicopter carrier in Taiwan which had won the bid to fly these money-losing routes.

Mandarin Airlines is owned by China Airlines (93.99%) and has 630 employees (as of March 2007).

Corporate affairs

The headquarters is currently in Songshan District, Taipei.

Previously the headquarters was in a different building in Taipei.

Logo

The airline uses Hai Tung Ching (海東青; 海东青; Hǎidōngqīng), a gyrfalcon from a Chinese legend, as its logo.

Destinations

Mandarin Airlines operates the following services as of November 2012 Destinations in China may include scheduled charter service or indirect routing which transit through other countries.

Current

 Republic of China

 People's Republic of China

 Hong Kong

 Japan

 Philippines

 Republic of Korea

 Vietnam

Former

 Australia

 Canada

 Germany

 Hong Kong

 Macau

 Netherlands

 Thailand

Codeshare agreements

As of November 2012, Mandarin Airlines has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:

Fleet

The Mandarin Airlines fleet comprises the following aircraft (as of August 2016):

Mandarin Airlines announced the lease of 8 Embraer E-190 aircraft from GE Commercial Aviation Services in December 2005 to replace the aging Fokker 50 and Fokker 100s in its fleet. Mandarin Airlines' E-190's featured a refreshed livery, with the first aircraft delivered in May 2007, becoming the first, and to date the only, Taiwanese airline to use this type of aircraft. On October 27, 2009, Mandarin Airlines retired its last Fokker 100 aircraft (B-12291), ending this type's 14-year service with the airline.

Previously operated aircraft include:

Incidents and accidents

On August 17, 2012, Mandarin Airlines Flight 369 experienced a runway excursion during heavy rain due to improper landing and deceleration technique on runway 20 at Magong airport. The ERJ-190 aircraft was intentionally steered off the side of the runway and struck the base of four concrete runway lights causing the nose gear to collapse. No injuries were reported for the accident.