Mandarin Airlines (AE, Taichung Ching Chuan Kang) ordered six ATR72-600s from ATR - Avions de Transport Régional during the ongoing 2023 Paris Air Show.

"Expanding our ATR fleet will enable us to add capacity on existing routes and create new services to continue stimulating the local economy and tourism across Taiwan with the lowest emission regional aircraft", Chairman Kao Shing-Hwang said.

The deliveries of the six new turboprops will begin this year and continue through 2025. Mandarin Airlines, the regional subsidiary of China Airlines (CI, Taipei Taoyuan), currently operates nine ATR72-600s, deploying them exclusively on domestic routes that mainly connect the island of Taiwan with smaller islands. Kao recently told ch-aviation the carrier was planning to boost its order book for the type.

In late March, the airline bought three ATR72-600s from ATR.

Having concluded E190 operations at the end of 2021, Mandarin Airlines is currently an all-ATR carrier, although it also wet-leases A320-200 and B737-800 aircraft from its sister airlines Tigerair Taiwan (IT, Taipei Taoyuan) and China Airlines for international routes.