New Route of the Day (23 June 2026): Xiamenair between Fuzhou and Amsterdam
Chinese carrier Xiamenair commenced flights between Fuzhou, in southeastern China, and Amsterdam on Tuesday 23 June. The 9,295-kilometre route will be maintained 2-weekly, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, with the exception of the inaugural, which operated on a Tuesday as a one-off. The carrier will deploy its 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft on the route.
Flight MF813 departs Fuzhou at 12:15 local time, arriving in Amsterdam at 18:30 local time. The return service, operating as flight MF814, takes off at 21:40 local time, arriving back in China at 14:45 local time the following afternoon.
Amsterdam linked to six airports in China
Four airlines are maintaining operations between Amsterdam and China this summer season, with a total of 40-weekly flights. Fuzhou becomes the sixth airport in China to be served from Amsterdam, joining Beijing PEK, Beijing PKX, Shanghai PVG, Guangzhou and Xiamen.
Apart from Xiamenair, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and KLM operate flights between the Netherlands and China. During the peak of the summer season, they will offer a combined total of just over 12,000 seats per week in each direction between the two markets.
China Southern Airlines is the largest carrier, with 14-weekly services and over 4,520 seats per week. It is followed by KLM with 12-weekly flights, as well as Xiamenair and China Eastern Airlines with a daily service, although the latter offers more capacity with 2,205 seats per week. In addition to its new Fuzhou service, Xiamenair also operates flights between Xiamen and Amsterdam.
These figures are still below pre-Covid levels, when Amsterdam boasted 50-weekly flights to China and over 16,780 seats per week.
Chinese carriers more than double market share in Europe
In 2010 Europe’s airlines accounted for 61% of seats flown non-stop between Europe (excluding Russia) and China. That share has fallen to just under 17% in 2026. During that same period, Chinese carriers have more than doubled their market share from 39% to 83%.
Even before the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine (which resulted in the closure of Russian airspace to most European airlines) Chinese carriers were already in the majority with almost 60% of seats in 2019.
European carriers are offering fewer seats than they did in 2010 as the longer routings now required make the routes far less competitive compared with their Chinese rivals. The leading European carrier in 2026 is Turkish Airlines (ahead of Lufthansa, Air France and KLM) which still operates flights to/from Russia and has access to Russian airspace.
