A Boeing 737 of Xiamen Airlines is parked at Dalian Airport. (Photo : Getty Images)
Xiamen Airlines, a subsidiary of state-backed China Southern Airlines, has inaugurated its first direct U.S. route with the opening of the Seattle-Shenzhen flight on Monday, Oct. 3, CNBC reported.
"Shenzhen is known as the 'Silicon Valley' of China, and this new destination will be a tremendous opportunity for both business and leisure travelers to experience our shared values," Port of Seattle Commissioner Fred Felleman said during a ceremony welcoming the first Xiamen flight at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Xiamen's arrival will help strengthen the region's status as a business and tourism hub, Felleman added.
Xiamen, a member of the SkyTeam airline alliance, has more than 140 Boeing aircraft and 30 more on order. It is also one of China's largest carriers.
The latest move by Xiamen, which is China's only airline with an all-Boeing fleet, came at a time when tourism and business activity between U.S. and China is growing at a fast pace.
A recent study by Boyd Group International predicted that annual U.S. arrivals from China will more than double, from 2.4 million in 2015 to over 6.5 million in 2020. The report added that in that period, more than 23 million Chinese will visit the U.S.
Shenzhen is the country's first economic zone and home to some of China's biggest tech firms such as telecom equipment maker Huawei, Internet tech firm Tencent Holdings and other companies that operate in the Pacific Northwest.
According to the report, only carriers like Delta Air Lines or Hainan Airlines serve the flights from Seattle to Chinese cities such as Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai before Xiamen's new Shenzhen service.
Kazue Ishiwata, airline service development director for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, said that Xiamen's Seattle-Shenzhen new route stands out partly because it was the first time that the two high-tech cities are linked by a direct route.
"Xiamen is not the biggest airline in China. There's Air China, China Eastern, China Southern and Hainan already in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities," Ishiwata said. "So it benefits a new entry carrier to begin service in a city where there aren't other airlines to compete with on the route."
A Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, with four first class seats, 28 business class seats and 236 economy class seats, will fly three times a week in the new route between Seattle and Shenzhen. The airline will offer complimentary WiFi for first and business class customers, the report said.
But aside from Seattle, Xiamen has also opened its North American flight between Vancouver and Xiamen in July, while its long-haul service between JFK International Airport and Fuzhou (FOC) will begin on Feb. 15, 2017.
The route between Xiamen and Los Angeles will begin in mid-2017, which is part of the airline's strategy to gain advantage in China.
