Happy 59th Birthday China Airlines

IATA	ICAO	Callsign
CI	CAL	DYNASTY

CHINA AIRLINES B747-409 B-18215 (CN 33737)      File Photo 

Despite being founded on the 7th September 1959 with a fleet of two PBY Amphibians and one C54 aircraft, China Airlines commenced operations on the 16th December 1959 with 26 employees. It shares were completely held by the Taiwan government. It was founded by a retired air force officer and initially concentrated on charter flights. During the 1960s, China Airlines was able to establish its first scheduled routes. In October 1962, a flight from Taipei to Hualien became the airline's first domestic service. Later, with the introduction of Caravelle and Boeing 727-100s, the airlines introduced international flights to South Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Japan. With the airlines' first two Boeing 707 aircraft, trans-Pacific flights to San Francisco via Tokyo were initiated on 2 February 1970. The expansion of the company's 707 fleet also permitted more services in Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia, and North America (via Japan and Hawaii). China Airlines is Taiwan's largest airline, it has its headquarters in Taoyuan International Airport and operates over 1400 flights weekly (including 91 pure cargo flights) to 102 cities across Asia, Europe, North America and Oceania. China Airlines is 10th largest airline in the world in terms of passenger revenue per kilometre (RPK) and freight RPK, respectively. China Airlines has three airline subsidiaries: China Airlines Cargo, Mandarin Airlines operates flights to domestic and low-demand regional destinations and Tigerair Taiwan, a low-cost carrier established by China Airlines and Singaporean airline group Tigerair Holdings, but is now wholly owned by China Airlines Group. China Airlines was voted no: 35 (same ranking as last year) in the top 100 best airlines for 2018 as awarded by Skytrax.
China Airlines moto is
"Spread your wings - Enjoy the world"

CHINA AIRLINES A330-302 B-18305 (CN 0671)      File photo

As of October 2018 China Airlines employees stood at 12,425 and their fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Information sourced from, Wikipedia, China Airlines website and Airline Finder