Xiamen Civil Aviation operated by Xiamen Airlines The history of Xiamen's aviation industry can be traced back to the Xiamen Wutong Civil Aviation Academy in 1928, which was one of the only three aviation academies in the
Republic of China at that time. In 1929, the Zhangxia Navy established the Zengcuo Aun Naval Airport in Xiamen, and in 1932, the China Airlines Xiamen Office, a joint venture between China and the
United States, operated air transportation to various places. Later, the airport was abandoned due to the
Japanese invasion of China. In 1941, during the Second World War, the Japanese who occupied Xiamen built Gaoqi Airport in the east of Gaoqi Village for both military and civilian use. From 5 December of the same year, first commercial flight between Xiamen and
Taipei took off and landed at Gaoqi Airport. After
Japan's defeat and surrender, Gaoqi Airport was taken over by the
Nationalist government and converted to a civilian airport on 1 November 1947. On 24 August 1949, the last scheduled Xiamen to Taipei flight took off from Gaoqi Airport to Taipei and then was discontinued (the route was not converted to a regular service until 2006, when holiday charters resumed, and after December 2008). For the next 33 years, Xiamen's aviation industry was disrupted and Gaoqi Airport was abandoned after a brief period of military use.
Founding On 16 October 1983, the chairman of
Aloha Airlines, Chen Qing who is a Chinese American, visited Xiamen to study the plan of establishing a Sino-foreign joint venture airline in Xiamen. Wu Zhongliang, who was involved in the establishment of Xiamen Airlines at that time, recalled that Aloha Airlines even had the intention of moving its base to Xiamen at that time. On 10 January 1984, the Xiamen Municipal Government drafted the "Conceptual Plan and Opinions on Sino-foreign Joint Venture to Operate China Xiamen Special Zone United Airlines Co. Ltd." On 25 January, representatives from Fujian Province and Xiamen City went to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) for project report, mentioning that priority would be given to joint undertakings by CAAC and Fujian Province as long as aircraft and funds were guaranteed. Subsequently, the CAAC, Fujian Province and Xiamen City held a special meeting on the proposed joint venture airline proposal, and finally rejected the joint venture airline proposal drawn up by the Xiamen City Government on the basis of air rights and other issues. On 16 November 1986, the first aircraft of Xiamen Airlines was transferred from Guangzhou to Xiamen to start its operation. In the same year, Xiamen Airlines bid farewell to its losses and opened the curtain on 27 years of continuous profitability. In 2000, Xiamen Airlines launched the service between Xiamen and
Bangkok, which was the first international service of Xiamen Airlines and operated as MF897/8. of XiamenAir On 25 July 2012, Xiamen Airlines changed its VI logo for the first time from "Blue Sky with White Heron" to "One Heron Flying High" and the aircraft painting theme was changed from "Reform Music" to "Sea and Sky". The theme of the aircraft painting was changed from "Reform Music" to "Sea and Sky". To upgrade the logo of Xiamen Airlines, the Chinese design master Chen Youjian and TEAGUE, the design team appointed by Boeing, were invited to design, revise and prove the new corporate logo, hence the rebranding to XiamenAir. On 1 December 2018, XiamenAir's last Boeing 757 (No. B-2868) was retired after its last flight from
Shanghai Hongqiao-Xiamen, and since then there have been no Boeing 757 passenger aircraft in
Greater China. As China's aviation sector developed, the airline expanded to regional Asian destinations while the delivery of wide-body
Boeing 787 Dreamliners permitted the airline to offer long-distance services. The airline's first intercontinental expansion was to
Europe, which commenced with an
Amsterdam service from 26 July 2015, and a
Paris service from 11 December 2018. Services to
Sydney followed from 30 November 2015, and
Melbourne a year later. The airline's first North American service, to
Vancouver, was launched on 26 July 2016. XiamenAir launched its first U.S. service to
Seattle in September 2016, followed by
New York JFK in February 2017 and
Los Angeles in June 2017. By early 2020, the airline had set up bases at
Fuzhou Changle International Airport,
Nanchang Changbei International Airport,
Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport,
Tianjin Binhai International Airport,
Changsha Huanghua International Airport,
Beijing Daxing International Airport (moved from
Beijing Capital International Airport in 2020),
Quanzhou Jinjiang International Airport,
Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport and
Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport. On 17 November of the same year,
SkyTeam officially announced the details of XiamenAir's membership in the alliance and signed a letter of intent to join the alliance in Rome, Italy. On 21 November 2012, XiamenAir officially became the 19th member of SkyTeam and added three new hubs to the alliance—Xiamen,
Fuzhou and
Hangzhou. China Southern, the parent company of XiamenAir, withdrew from SkyTeam on 1 January 2019. ==Airline agreements==