Tigerair Mandala

Tigerair Mandala (formerly Mandala Airlines) was a low-cost carrier headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was founded in 1969 as a full service airline by members of the Indonesian military. In 2006, as part of the ongoing reforms, the military was forced to sell Mandala Airlines, with the new owners converting it to a low-cost carrier. In January 2011, facing bankruptcy, Mandala Airlines filed for protection from its creditors, and ceased operations. In May 2011, Singapore based Tiger Airways Holdings made an offer to purchase Mandala, but the transaction did not close until September 2011. The airline did not return to service until April 2012, renamed Tigerair Mandala, following an injection of fresh capital by Indonesian conglomerate Saratoga Investment Corp. For the next two years, Tigerair Mandala shared Tigerair's sales, distribution and marketing channels. Tigerair Mandala's fleet of new Airbus A320 aircraft (brand new aircraft originally ordered for Tigerair Singapore) flew primarily within the more populous regions of Java and Sumatra, providing domestic and regional international connections of no more than five hours. It planned to increase its fleet to 15 aircraft by year-end 2013 and to 25 by 2015. In terms of the airline's air operators certificate (AOC) history, it was technically the oldest airline in the Tiger Airways Holdings Group.