Xiamen Air opens Fuzhou-New York route

China Southern Airlines subsidiary Xiamen Air has opened a new route from Fuzhou to New York JFK. The new 3X-weekly service uses a Boeing 787-9 and is its second direct route to the US. In September 2016, Xiamen opened 3X-weekly Xiamen-Shenzhen-Seattle services.

Over the past two years, the carrier has opened six intercontinental routes: Xiamen-Amsterdam, Fuzhou-Sydney, Xiamen-Sydney, Xiamen-Melbourne, Xiamen-Vancouver and Xiamen-Shenzhen-Seattle. The airline plans to launch service from Xiamen to Los Angeles in June and more intercontinental routes to Toronto, Paris and London in the future.

More carriers are interested in opening intercontinental direct services from Chinese secondary cities, such as Xiamen, Fuzhou, Xi’an and Hangzhou as outbound travel increases and local governments subsidize the routes.

Xiamen has maintained a consecutive profit record for 30 years. In 2016, its operating revenue increased 6.8% to CNY20.8 billion ($3 billion) year-over-year and operating profit grew 23.2% to CNY2.23 billion.

The airline carried 23.7 million passengers last year, up 4.2% from 22.8 million in 2015 as market demand—especially on international routes—experienced rapid growth.

(Katie Cantle - ATWOnline News)