Taiwan’s Mandarin Airlines is on course to become the first airline in Asia Pacific to operate Embraer 190-family aircraft and expects to get its first aircraft in April 2007, writes Leithen Francis in Singapore.
Mandarin Airlines, which is part of China Airlines group, has signed a letter of intent (LoI) for three E-190s and five larger E-195s and expects to sign a firm contract “in one month or three weeks”.
All eight aircraft are to be leased from GE Commercial Aviation Services (GECAS), with the first to be delivered in April 2007 and the last in mid-2009, and will replace Mandarin’s fleet of six Fokker 100s and five Fokker 50s.
The first and second batch of pilots assigned to the Embraer aircraft might be sent to Brazil, home of Embraer, for training, but pilots will later be trained in Asia because the aircraft manufacturer is looking at establishing a pilot training centre either in Singapore or Hong Kong.
Mandarin plans to operate the regional jets on routes within Taiwan as well as on international services.
Source: Flight International
