Taipei - Taiwan's Mandarin Airlines has leased 8 large aircraft from Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer to operate tourist charter flights across the Taiwan Strait, a newspaper said on Saturday. The China Times quoted Mandarin Airlines President Wang Hua-yu as saying that Mandarin Airlines has leased 8 E-190/195 jets from Embraer to replace its outdated Fokker-50 and Fokker-100s.
E-190 and E-195 can seat 108 and 120 passengers respectively. Mandarin Airlines chose them because they are spacious and can be flown by pilots licensed to fly Boeing jets, Wang said.
Wang said that although Mandarin Airlines flies domestic and regional routes, a portion of its future passengers are Chinese tourists coming to Taiwan and Taiwan manufacturers going to China.
On Friday, Taiwan launched historic weekend charter flights with China, allowing 6 Chinese airlines and 5 Taiwan airlines to operate a total of 18 round-trip flights from Friday to Monday.
Mandarin Airlines was allowed to operate weekend charter flights to China's Xiamen City.
But Mandarin Airlines hopes that in future, it will be allowed to fly to more Chinese cities, so it leased 8 jets from Embraer.
President Ma Ying-jeou, to promote cross-strait peace, hopes to extend the weekend charter flights to daily charter flights and eventually to regular direct flight.
