Mandala Airlines gets green light to relaunch

The carrier had its AOC frozen by Indonesia's aviation authorities last year after the suspension of its operations in January 2011. The carrier grounded its fleet on 21 January 2011 due to financial difficulties, but since then Mandala has managed to secure new investment. Last month, Tiger Airways completed a 33.0% investment in Mandala, held through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Roar Aviation. Indonesia's Saratoga group has also taken a 51.3% stake in the airline.

The restructured airline will adopt a low-cost business model based on Tiger's operations, and plans to fly to both domestic and international destinations within five-hours flying time. Like Tiger, Mandala will operate a fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft.