Xiamen Airlines

Xiamen Civil Aviation

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.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Xiamen was in a state of war for a long time and had no civil aviation airport of its own because of its location on the front of the Taiwan Strait. At that time, the citizens of Xiamen could only travel by boat or train. This contradiction was even more prominent after the establishment of Xiamen Special Economic Zone. On 10 January 1982, the Central Military Commission and the State Council approved the construction of Xiamen Gaoqi Airport. In October of the following year.

However, the airport had no airline that operated as a hub, and still could not solve the issue of lack of capacity. At the opening ceremony of Xiamen Airport, Zhang Ru, Vice Governor of Fujian Province Government, proposed to Shen Tu, Director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), who attended the opening ceremony, that the CAAC and Fujian Province cooperate to establish an airline company, and received support on the spot. Immediately afterwards, the CPC Fujian Provincial Committee assigned Vice Governor Zhang Ru and Vice Mayor of Xiamen City Xiang Zhen to work with Director Wang Dao of the Planning Department of CAAC to study the establishment of an airline company.

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 2 March 1984, the Civil Aviation Administration of China and Fujian Provincial Government jointly issued the "Approval of Agreement on Joint Venture Operation of Xiamen Airlines Co. Ltd. Xiamen Air Co. Ltd was officially established on 25 July 1984, as the first comprehensive local airline company and the first joint venture between the central and local governments. Gaoqi Airport have being chosen for the base of this new funded airline.

At the early years of the airline, Xiamen Airlines set itself as a regional airline, but the investment of 20 million RMB from the three shareholders was not available at the beginning of its establishment, and it only registered with a bank account with 5,000 RMB, without any aircraft and livery.

On 5 January 1985, 9:55 a.m., a wet-leased Boeing 737 airliner of Xiamen Airlines landed safely at Beijing Capital Airport at 12:27 p.m. after 2 hours and 32 minutes of flight time, which was the first route opened by Xiamen Airlines. In the afternoon, the company's second route, Xiamen-Guangzhou, was also officially opened, with the participation of Jiang Ping, vice mayor of Xiamen, and leaders of Xiamen Airlines, etc. On 10 January, the company opened its third route, Xiamen-Shanghai.