In 2006, as part of the ongoing reforms, the military was forced to sell Mandala Airlines, with the new owners converting it to a low-cost carrier.

In January 2011, facing bankruptcy, Mandala Airlines filed for protection from its creditors, and ceased operations.

In May 2011, Singapore based Tiger Airways Holdings made an offer to purchase Mandala, but the transaction did not close until September 2011.

[2] PT Mandala Airlines was founded on April 17, 1969, by Col. Sofjar, Maj. Gen. Raden Soerjo, Adil Aljol, Maj. (Air Force) Soegandi Partosoegondo, Kasbi Indradjanoe and Darwin Ramli.

In its early years Mandala Airlines operated flights between Jakarta and destinations in eastern Indonesia, such as Ambon, Gorontalo, Kendari, Makassar and Manado.

Blora No.23 in Jakarta, and its fleet consisted of five turboprop airliners: three Vickers Viscount 800s and two Hawker Siddeley HS 748s.

In 2001, it suffered a financial scandal,[4] in which no less than IDR 135.5 billion (about US$13.5 million) was stolen from the company funds by a senior Kostrad officer.

At about the same month, political developments in Indonesia forced the military to divest itself of its businesses, resulting in Mandala Airlines being offered for sale.

[13] In January 2009, Mandala Airlines completed the phasing out of its older Boeing aircraft, replacing them with newer Airbuses.

[15] Shortly after services between Jakarta and Macau started on 21 July 2010, the airline announced that all flights between 22 and 29 August 2010 had been cancelled.

Ltd.[17] and Saratoga Investama, an Indonesian strategic investment company owned by Edwin Soeryadjaya, Patrick Walujo and Sandiaga Uno, announced their plans in a filing to the Singapore Stock Exchange.

[24] Mandala resumed operations on Thursday 5 April 2012 as a partner airline of Tiger Airways, with one domestic route between its home base Jakarta and Medan, the capital of North Sumatra.

The current livery of Mandala Airlines is a "Eurowhite" scheme, consisting of a white fuselage with a blue 'mandala' title.

Mandala's previous livery was also a "eurowhite" scheme with a different typeface for the 'Mandala' title, a blue tail and the original logo.

The airline's earliest[29] scheme was a bare-metal lower and white upper fuselage with a blue cheatline across the cabin windows and a red 'MANDALA' title.

Mandala Airlines adopts the same low-frills concept of Tigerair by offering a single class service on all its 180-seat Airbus A320 aircraft.