The airline was formed as a joint venture subsidiary of HNA Group and Fuzhou Municipal Government. As part of its initial operation, Fuzhou Airlines' professional personnel (including pilots, MRO staff and cabin crew)[1] were provided by its parent company Hainan Airlines.[2][3]
On 17 October 2014, the carrier secured its Air Operators Certificate (AOC) from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).[4][5] This certificate was needed to allow the launch later that month.[6] Operations started on 30 October 2014 with its maiden flight serving the Fuzhou–Beijing sector.[4][7][8]
As of October 2014[update], Fuzhou Airlines has a registered capital of CNY2 billion ($33 million). The major shareholder of the company is the HNA Group (CNY1.2 billion, 60% stake), with the balance split between the Fuzhou State-owned Investment Holdings Co. keeping 20% of the shares and Century Golden Resources Group and Ningbo Ruitong Network Technology Co. having 10% each.[9]
Prior to the launch of services, the airline stated it had been approved to initially fly to seven domestic destinations from Fuzhou: Chongqing, Kunming, Haikou, Hefei, Taiyuan, Tianjin and Xi'an.[5] All these routes, along with another one serving Shanghai-Pudong, commenced on 30 October 2014 (2014-10-30), when formal operations were launched.[9] The carrier plans to expand in the future in order to serve over a dozen domestic routes.[6]
The company took delivery of its first aircraft, a Boeing 737-800 sourced from Hainan Airlines that was repainted in a red and white livery, in early October 2014 (2014-10).[13] Fuzhou Airlines started operations with a fleet of two of these aircraft using a seating layout able to accommodate 8 passengers in Business and 156 in Economy class.[7] There are plans to expand the number of aircraft in the fleet to 40 by 2020.[13]
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