Xiamen Airlines reveals new long-haul routes

Chinese airline to launch flights to Melbourne, Vancouver, Seattle and New York

Written by: Mark Elliott

China’s Xiamen Airlines is stepping up its long-haul expansion with plans to launch flights to Vancouver, Seattle, New York and Melbourne in the coming months.

The airline launched its first ever long-haul flights to Amsterdam in September last year, and then followed this up with the start of services to Sydney in December.

Xiamen Airlines’ Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft at Sydney Airport (photo by PomInOz)

This Australian expansion will continue in June 2016 with the start of three weekly flights to Melbourne, direct from Xiamen, the airline’s base in southeast China’s Fujian province. 

Then in July it plans to launch four weekly flights from Xiamen to Vancouver, marking its first ever trans-Pacific flight, and in September the carrier will start flying four times a week from Xiamen to Seattle, via Shenzhen. 

And finally in January 2017, Xiamen Airlines will launch a new daily flight between Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province, and New York.

Xiamen Airlines’ long-haul expansion is being enabled by its new fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The airline already operates six B787-8 Dreamliners and will start taking delivery of the larger B787-9 aircraft later this year.

The airline has significant future expansion plans, with a target of increasing its current fleet of 152 aircraft to 270 jets by the end of 2020.