Formosa Airlines was a Taiwanese regional airline operating an extensive network of domestic routes out of its bases at Taipei Songshan Airport and Kaohsiung International Airport. Its headquarters were in Taipei.

History

The company was founded on 5 May 1966 as Yung Shing Airlines, and revenue operations commenced on 1 July. For the first decade of its existence, only crop dusting services were offered, before turning towards passenger flights. With its small fleet of Britten-Norman Islander and Cessna 404s, Yung Shing Airlines served a number of domestic destinations, most notably linking Taitung City with outlying Orchid Island and Green Island. In 1983, the Dornier 228 joined the fleet, which would remain an important part for the airline's operations throughout the years. On 8 August 1987, the company was renamed Formosa Airlines (reflecting the historic name for Taiwan) and moved its headquarters to Taipei, with the city's Songshan Airport becoming its primary base. In 1988, Formosa Airlines became the first Far Eastern operator of the Saab 340, with a capacity of 37 passengers its by then-largest aircraft type. by 1996, this subfleet had grown to nine planes. Plans for turning the airline into a Hong Kong-registered company in order to be able to transport passengers between Taiwan and China were brought forth in 1989, but did not materialize. Formosa Airlines became a jet aircraft operator in 1995, when two 109-seat Fokker 100s were acquired, along with 5 smaller Fokker 50 turboprop airliners. In July 1996, China Airlines acquired a 41 percent stake in Formosa Airlines and took over the management, aiming at thus improving Formosa's inferior safety record (see below) and developing Kaohsiung International Airport into a domestic hub. When EVA Air, the major competitor of China Airlines, merged its domestic subsidiaries to create Uni Air in 1998, a similar merger was announced for Formosa Airlines and Mandarin Airlines, with the latter name to be kept. On 8 August 1999, the merger was finalized: Formosa Airlines with its then 620 employees and a number of short haul aircraft were combined with Mandarin's, with all long haul planes of Mandarin Airlines being handed over to China Airlines.

Destinations

During the 1990s, Formosa Airlines operated scheduled flights to the following domestic destinations:

Fleet

Prior to merger:

Historic fleet

Accidents and incidents