Mandarin Airlines

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 Republic of China, 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 directly 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 aircraft 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).

Destinations

As of June 2024, Mandarin Airlines flies (or has flown) to the following destinations; destinations in China may include scheduled charter service or indirect routing which transit through other countries:

Interline agreements

Mandarin Airlines has interline agreements with the following airlines:

Emirates

Singapore Airlines

Accidents and incidents

As 2024, Mandarin Airlines was involved in two incidents with no hull loss and fatalities. One McDonnell Douglas MD-11 which wore Mandarin Airlines' livery crashed while landing at Hong Kong International Airport on August 22, 1999, resulting in three fatalities, but it was withdrawn from Mandarin Airlines three months before the crash and operated by China Airlines upon the crash.

On December 6, 2006, Mandarin Airlines Flight 1261 flew from Taipei to Kinmen. After a normal landing at Kinmen Airport, it was found that a wheel of the front landing gear had fallen off. Later, the wheel was found next to the runway of Songshan Airport. There were no casualties.

On 17 August 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 E-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.