Military sector Amongst the first customers for the CN-235 was the
French Air and Space Force, which had ordered an initial eight aircraft by May 1989. By 2015, the service had expanded its fleet to 27 aircraft. Several sizable early orders from the Indonesian armed forces made it the largest customer for the CN-235 early on. By May 1989, the
Indonesian Air Force alone had ordered 32 aircraft while the
Indonesian Navy had ordered 18 CN-235s, six of which in a maritime surveillance configuration. In November 2016, the Indonesian Air Force also commenced operations with the latest generation of CN-235 MPAs, equipped with winglets and new electronic support apparatus. The Spanish armed forces also placed modest early orders for the type, by May 1989, two
VIP-configured CN-235s had been ordered by the
Spanish Air Force. In December 2007, Spain ordered a pair of CN-235 MPA for the Guardia Civil, making it the first fixed-wing aircraft to be operated by the agency. During the early 1990s, the
Irish Air Corps became interested in the type, initially opting to lease a single aircraft directly from CASA in 1992. Two years later, a pair of CN-235s configured for maritime surveillance operations were delivered to the Air Corps. During 2021, amid the
Fall of Kabul and the US withdrawal from
Afghanistan, one of the CN-235s was flown to the nation to assist with the evacuation. In 2022, Irish CN-235s have been deployed to provide humanitarian aid to, as well as evacuate wounded civilians from,
Ukraine. In December 2002, the Colombian Navy ordered two CN-235 configured for maritime patrol and anti-drug trafficking missions. During July 2010, a third MPA-configured aircraft was delivered. In April 2012, Colombia awarded a contract to Telephonics to replace the original radars of the two older CN-235s with the APS-143 OceanEye marine surveillance Radar. In April 2005,
Venezuela ordered two CN-235 maritime surveillance aircraft along with ten transport planes. However, during the following year, the transaction was halted due to the refusal of the United States government to allow the transfer of what they deemed to be US technology in the aircraft's
avionics. In January 2006, Thailand came to a tentative
bartering arrangement with Indonesian Aerospace for ten aircraft, six of which were for the Ministry of Defence and the remaining four for the Ministry of Agriculture. An additional aircraft was ordered on 19 September 2014. During July 2008, the
Mexican Navy announced that it would purchase six CN-235s. In November 2011, the first aircraft was accepted by the service; it was configured to conduct search and rescue, disaster relief, and drug interdiction missions. During May 2012, the final of four CN-235 MPAs was delivered to the Mexican Navy. , April 2011 In December 2008, South Korea announced that Indonesian Aerospace's bid had triumphed over four rival submissions, and thus it would order four CN-235-110 MPAs to equip the
South Korean Coast Guard with; these aircraft, delivered in 2011, had a reported per unit cost of $23 million. On behalf of the
Royal Jordanian Air Force, a light
gunship version of the CN-235 was developed; it was introduced to service in May 2014. Collaborators in the project included the
King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau of
Jordan, and the U.S. defense company
Orbital ATK. The aircraft were produced under license by
Turkish Aerospace in their
Ankara plant. During the 2000s, a modification programme was undertaken to equip 19
Turkish Navy and coastguard aircraft with new maritime surveillance equipment supplied mainly by
Thales. Throughout the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, CN-235 MPAs of the Turkish Navy heavily patrolled the
Black Sea, these have repeatedly detected
sea mines and aided in de-mining efforts. All aircraft are undergoing avionics modernizations while some are being retrofitted for customized roles such as border security. The
Royal Malaysian Air Force has operated a fleet of CN-235 transports. During early 2020, it was announced that several Malaysian aircraft would be converted into a maritime surveillance configuration using financial assistance from the United States. On 17 June 2022, the Royal Malaysian Air Force receive the first of three such modified CN235-220M MSA as part of the Malaysian Maritime Security Initiative program. Between 2010 and 2012, the
Senegalese Air Force acquired two CN-235s at a reported cost of $13 million. In 2013, the service declared it planned to buy two more aircraft for VIP and cargo duties, and that it was also interested in the MPA version as well. During 2018, Senegal ordered two MPA-configured CN-235s, the first of which was received in 2021. On January 10, 2024,
Indonesian President
Joko Widodo offered the CN-235 ASW of
PT Dirgantara Indonesia for the
Philippine Navy during his visit to
Manila.
Commercial airliner in Indonesia Although the CN-235 has been initially designed as a military transport, it has also been offered to civil operators, usually as a commercial airliner. It has not achieved substantial sales in this role compared to competing 50-seat commuter aircraft such as the
Fokker 50,
ATR 42 and
De Havilland Canada DHC-8.
Iberia LAE, Spain's
flag carrier, emerged as an early customer, opting to purchase four CN-235s from CASA to serve on its regional routes. It, and its subsidiaries
Binter Canarias and
Binter Mediterraneo, operated the type between 1989 and 1997, opting to procure several larger
ATR 72s to replace it. Numerous Indonesian operators had placed early orders for the CN-235; by 1992, there were internal routes served by the type between most of the major cities in the country. During 1992,
Aerolíneas Argentinas, which was a subsidiary of Iberia at that time, ordered a pair of CN-235s to be operated by its own subsidiary,
Austral. Around 2007,
Asian Spirit operated a lone CN-235-220 in the Philippines. During 2015, Indonesian Aerospace announced that they were in the early stages of developing a new variant of the CN-235, the
N245, which has been specifically designed to perform civil operations and is able to carry up to 60 passengers. Alternatively also referred to as the
CN-235NG, this variant is planned to be fully launched following the completion of the
Indonesian Aerospace N219 project, at one point, it was expected to be fully certified sometime in 2019. A further derivative has been envisioned, referred to as the
N-270, it is a stretched version of the N245 and is planned to be able to carry up to 70–90 passengers; the original timeframe for development was set between 2019 and 2024. ==Variants==