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The story
PT Mandala Airlines was founded on April 17, 1969, by Col. Sofjar, Maj. Gen. Raden Soerjo, Adil Aljol, Maj. (Air Force) Soegandi Partosoegondo, Kasbi Indradjanoe and Darwin Ramli. The airline was owned by PT Dharma Kencana Sakti, which in turn was the commercial arm of Yayasan Dharma Putra Kostrad, a foundation linked to Kostrad, the strategic reserve command of the Indonesian army. The airline was named after Operation Mandala, the military operations to incorporate West Papua into Indonesia. The name also refers to the mandala, a Sanskrit term for a diagram symbolizing the universe, which is used as the logo of the corporation.
In its early years Mandala Airlines operated flights between Jakarta and destinations in eastern Indonesia, such as Ambon, Gorontalo, Kendari, Makassar and Manado. As of May 1971, the company's head office was in a building at Jl. Blora No.23 in Jakarta, and its fleet consisted of five turboprop airliners: three Vickers Viscount 800s and two Hawker Siddeley HS 748s. In 1972 Mandala took over Seulawah Air Services (another military-owned airline), which flew to cities in western Indonesia, such as Banda Aceh, Banjarmasin, Medan, Padang, Palembang, Pekanbaru and Pontianak, giving the airline a national coverage.
Under military management, Mandala Airlines kept a relatively quiet existence as a second-tier airline. In 1992, it retired the last of its aged turboprop fleet and replaced them with leased second hand jet aircraft. In 2001, it suffered a financial scandal, in which no less than IDR 135.5 billion (about US$13.5 million) was stolen from the company funds by a senior Kostrad officer.
Despite being awarded as Indonesia's "Most Potential Brand in Airlines Service" in 2002, Mandala found it hard to compete with other recently emerged Indonesian airlines. In September 2005, Mandala experienced a high-profile accident in Medan. At about the same month, political developments in Indonesia forced the military to divest itself of its businesses, resulting in Mandala Airlines being offered for sale. After the Indonesian government refused to take over Mandala Airlines, Cardig International acquired the airline for IDR 300 billion (US$34 million) in April 2006. Indigo Partners acquired 49% of Cardig's shares in October 2006.
Within one year of its acquisition, Mandala Airlines transformed its image into a modern airline satisfying international standards of safety. It adopted the low-cost carrier model, in order to compete with other low-cost airlines in Indonesia. Mandala Airlines created a special niche among Indonesia's low-cost carriers by creating an image as a safe airline, taking advantage of the relatively young age of its fleet.
Mandala has now completed the IOSA (IATA Operational Safety Audit) of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), and other manufacturer audits. It contracted maintenance of its aircraft to Singapore Airlines Engineering Company (SIAEC). Its safety improvements were recognized by the European Union as Mandala was among four Indonesian airlines (the others were Garuda Indonesia, Airfast Indonesia and Premiair) officially struck from the EU airline ban list on July 14, 2009. Mandala is listed in Category 1 by the Indonesian Civil Aviation Authority for airline safety quality.
In January 2009, Mandala Airlines completed the phasing out of its older Boeing aircraft, replacing them with newer Airbuses. On April 20, 2009, Mandala moved its Jakarta operations to the new Terminal 3 of the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. In April 2010, Mandala Airlines announced international services to Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore. These services started on June 25, 2010.
Shortly after services between Jakarta and Macau started on 21 July 2010, the airline announced that all flights between 22 and 29 August 2010 had been cancelled. Concerns were raised by some passengers that the company did not provide adequate information about the abrupt cancellations.
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On January 13, 2011, Mandala Airlines temporarily stopped flying all of their fleet due to financial problems. In May 2011, Singapore-based Tiger Airways through Road Aviation Pte. Ltd. and Saratoga Investama, an Indonesian strategic investment company owned by Edwin Soeryadjaya, Patrick Walujo and Sandiaga Uno, announced their plans in a filing to the Singapore Stock Exchange. Tiger Airways was to acquire a 33 percent stake, while the Saratoga Group would buy 51 percent of Mandala. Mandala Airlines would focus on the low cost carrier (LCC) market because one of the shareholders, Tiger Airways, also runs an LCC operation.
The company was reported to have asked the commercial court to delay debt recovery action against the airline. The official application for postponement of debt payments to the Commercial Court has been filed for Rp.800 billion to about 271 creditors. At end of February 2011, the creditors had finally accepted the airline's debt settlement proposal to convert debt to equity. It was approved by 70.58 percent of total creditors from the total debt of Rp.2.4 trillion. After struggle with the funds, on September 24, 2011, the acquisition transaction was finally closed. Mandala would be back in the air 90 days after it, but certainly should got a new air operator certificate first during it. Two Mandala aircraft have been checked by the Transportation Ministry inspectors and Mandala Airlines have to resume service by February 15, 2012, or its AOC license would be revoked. Mandala will have 10 aircraft within one year.
Mandala resumed operations on Thursday 5 April 2012 as a partner airline of Tiger Airways, with one domestic route between its home base Jakarta and Medan, the capital of North Sumatra. This will be followed by its first international destination when it launches the Medan-Singapore route on 20 April 2012, adding a second Indonesian destination to Tiger's Singapore network after Jakarta. From May, Tiger Airways Mandala will also fly twice daily to Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur from Jakarta. Passengers holding on to Mandala tickets for flights after the company ceased operations in 2011 were offered a complimentary travel voucher redeemable through the company's new Tiger-based website.
On July 3, 2013, as part of the Tiger Airways Group, Mandala Airlines announced its transformation into ‘Tigerair Mandala’ (RI) in conjunction to Tiger Airways brand refresh to Tigerair. By operating under the new brand name, the airlines also adopted a new logo.
The change is also occurring to other airlines under the Tigerair Group, namely Tiger Airways to Tigerair (TR), Tiger Australia to Tigerair Australia (TT) and SEAIR to Tigerair Philippines (DG).
Tigerair Mandala ceased all operations on 1 July 2014, following the decision of the main shareholders to cease funding the airline. In December 2014, it filed for bankruptcy at the Central Jakarta Commercial Court. In February 2015, Mandala was officially bankrupt.
From Wikipedia’s article on Tigerair Mandala, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3