History

Later, in 1946 the Civil Air Transportation is founded with the establishment of civil air transport detachment with 7 super airplanes and 1 Po-2 aircraft and started civil air services to domestic destinations like Dund-Gobi, Sainshand, Undurkhaan and Sukhbaatar provinces. Furthermore the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Mongolia approved the " People's Aircraft Mail Rule" and the signs and symbols of air mail aircraft by the resolutions 27 and 32 in 1946 and 1947 respectively.

The first civil air transport detachment operated direct flights from Ulaanbaatar to the nearest provinces - Selenge, Bulgan, Arkhangai, Uvurkhangai, Khentii, Sukhbaatar and Choibalsan, and performed limited non-scheduled charter flights to deliver the mail to remote destinations. The development of the country and growth in living standards, culture and science demanded further improvement of civil aviation industry along with new technology, aircraft supply and staff training etc.

In 1955, the first group of trainees were sent to Civil Air School in Irkutsk, Russia for An-2 crew training and G. Radnaa, D. Jambaldorj, A. Dorjsuren were trained for pilots and S. Nergui, T. Samdan - for mechanics.

The year of 1956 was a year of starting point of new era in the development of civil air transportation in Mongolia. In the beginning of 1956, 5 An-2 aircraft were delivered from Soviet Union and the transition training for pilots was successfully completed enabling to serve Mongolian people with scheduled flights.

In 1958, there were 14 An-2, 7 Il-14 totally 21 civil air transport aircraft that carried 11605 passengers and 363700 kg of freight and mail. By 1970, MIAT Mongolian Civil Air Transportation Corporation was serving 130 local destinations including province centers, soums and collective farms composed 80% out of total destinations.

At that time, MIAT Mongolian Civil Air Transportation Corporation operated 4-6 flights a week from Ulaanbaatar to province centers, 2-3 flights from province centers to soums and 30% of passengers traveling from soums to province centers and v.v., and 70% of the passengers originated their travel from Ulaanbaatar were served by MIAT Mongolian Civil Air Transportation Corporation.

During 1966-1970, the corporation had more qualified personal and its fleet was increased twice. Moreover, the airports in Uvurkhangai and Huvsugul provinces were equipped with landing & lighting system for night flights. The new opened air route length was increased 60%.

1987 is an another year of significance - MIAT Mongolian Civil Air Transportation Corporation started its international operation with Tu-154 aircraft wet leased in from Soviet Union and representative offices in Moscow and Irkutsk, Russia and Beijing, China were opened.

The development of civil air transport, an expansion of Mongolia's relationship with other countries and the requirements to operate flights that meet international standards raised a question of re-organization in Mongolian civil aviation and in 1993 the Minister of Road, Transport and Communication passed an ordinance no. 180 on re-structuring of MIAT Mongolian Civil Air Transport Corporation and the establishment self-dependent state owned enterprise (SOE) - MIAT Mongolian Airlines. Since 12th of August 1993 MIAT Mongolian Airlines began its history of self-operation.

In 1993, MIAT Mongolian Airlines started its operation with 12 An-24, 3 An-26, 5 Yu-12, 45 An-2, 1 B-727, 1 Tu-154, 1 An-30 aircraft, totaling in 68 aircraft.

In June 1994, 2 B-727 aircraft were purchased from the Republic of Korea making possible to operate international flights with own aircraft.

Upon the expansion of its international operation the company became a member of SITA reservation system in 1990, and IATA International Air Transport Association in 1996.

In May 1998, one A310-300 aircraft was leased in on financial lease from Airbus Industrie Financial Services in the framework of international and domestic fleet replacement project in order to meet foreign aviation authorities noise requirement.

B737-800 aircraft was delivered on operating lease from GATX in July 2002.