Mandarin Airlines was established on June 1, 1991 and was originally a joint venture of China Airlines and the Koos Group. The Chinese name of Mandarin Airlines was therefore created as a synthesis of characters from both investors. In the beginning, Mandarin Airlines mainly operates direct flights from Taipei to Canada's Vancouver, Australia's Sydney and Brisbane.

　　On October 31, 1992 the China Trust Group pulled out their investment in Mandarin Airlines, thus turning the airline into a company wholly owned by China Airlines.

　　On August 8, 1999, Mandarin Airlines merged with Formosa Airlines, which was an Airlines mainly operated domestic route. Therefore, Mandarin Airlines has become an Airlines that runs regional short-haul international route and domestic route.

　　From the very beginning, Mandarin Airlines emphasized on flight safety and comfortable flight service. We have received the 1992 citation of meritorious service from the Australian Civil Aviation Board in 1992. In April 1996 we were granted the first ISO-9002 certification for service in Taiwan.

　　After the merger of Formosa Airlines, on year 2000, Mandarin Airlines undertook further full-scale quality certification process and successfully awarded with ISO-9002 certificate by SGS Yarsley International Certification Service Co., This certification includes flight operation, maintenance operation, flight safety, operational control, passenger service, ground handling and cargo service. This certification has been renewed on December 2003, Mandarin Airlines has been awarded with ISO9001 year-2000-edition certificate. The meaning of this certification is aim at providing unanimous operational and service standards through internal quality control and customer communication to achieve service improvement and customer satisfaction.

　　The golden eagle Hai Tung Ching from old Chinese legend was chosen as the business mark of Mandarin Airlines when the airline was first formed. According to the descriptions in the "Annals of Rehol" Hai Tung Ching was the greatest of eagles, his existence was found in the lower stream of Hei Long River. In Ching Dynasty Gan Long Emperor era, Lang Shi Ning, the missioner form the Society of Jesus of Italy painted this noble white eagle, and the painting was inscribed by Gan Long Emperor himself for the praise of “Bai Hai Qing Ge”.

　　It is Mandarin Airlines' business motto and strategy "We are committed with an attentive, caring, and pragmatic attitude to provide safe, economic, and efficient service to our customers". Although Mandarin Airlines was originally established with the objective of operating long-haul flights on international routes, we redefined our objective after merging with Formosa Airlines: besides continuing to operate domestic flights, it is our future direction to expand flights on regional and international routes. 　

　　The purpose of choosing of the golden eagle Hai Tung Ching as our company logo is to indicate that "once we took flight, we flew a thousand miles" and its spirit of strong endeavors when facing various situations. On February 2002, Mandarin Airlines has introduced three new Boeing 737-800 aircraft. The Boeing Company used the painting of Lang Shi Ning as the model to create a crystal glass inaugural present. This Hai Tung Ching crystal glass has become the most valuable collection of Mandarin Airlines.