Xiamen Airport Guide: A Single Runway Hub Nearing Its End
Xiamen Airport at Gaoqi is the hub of XiamenAir and China's busiest single runway field, soon to be replaced by Xiang'an. Read about its routes and spotting.
By The Aviation Hub
6 min read
Updated October 20, 2026 
Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport is the main airport for Xiamen and the southern coast of Fujian Province in China. It sits on the northern tip of Xiamen Island, about 6 miles (10 km) from the city centre, with the Taiwan Strait a short distance away. Around 29 million passengers used Xiamen Airport in 2025, a record for a single runway airport in China. XiamenAir runs its main hub here, the TAECO maintenance hangars draw wide bodies from around the world, and a replacement airport at Xiang’an is due to take over all flights in late 2026.
Xiamen Airport at a Glance
The codes are XMN and ZSAM. The airfield lies at 59 ft (18 m) above sea level beside Gaoqi Village on the north shore of Xiamen Island, 6 miles (10 km) from the Zhongshan Road district and a few minutes from the bridges to the mainland. Kinmen, administered by Taiwan, is less than 10 miles (16 km) away across the water.
Xiamen Airport has one runway and two passenger terminals. Traffic in 2025 was around 29.2 million passengers, 16th in China, with about 199,000 movements and more than 377,000 tonnes of cargo. Around 3.4 million passengers were international, which ranks sixth nationally. XiamenAir is the hub carrier, with China Eastern, Shandong Airlines and Spring Airlines treating the city as a focus. Xiamen International Airport Company, owned by the municipal government, operates the field. Flight information is on the airport’s official website.
How Xiamen’s Airport Came to Be
The Japanese built a military airfield east of Gaoqi Village during their occupation of Xiamen in the late 1930s. The Nationalist government reclaimed it after 1945 and turned it over to civil flights, and the People’s Liberation Army took over in 1949. The last flight left that August and the airport closed.
It stayed closed for three decades. Renovations in the early 1950s and 1955 came to nothing because the field sat within range of Nationalist artillery on Kinmen. Only when tensions eased and Xiamen became one of China’s first special economic zones did the airport reopen, on 22 October 1983, with a loan from the Kuwait Fund. It was the first Chinese airport built with foreign money and run by a local government. The first flight was CAAC 265 to Shanghai.
XiamenAir was founded the following year as China’s first airline run on commercial lines. Terminal 1 came down in 2012. Terminal 3 grew out of Terminal 2, and Terminal 4 opened on 28 December 2014 as a stopgap, after which the island site had no room left to grow. KLM’s Amsterdam route in 2011 was the first long haul service.
Runways at Xiamen Airport
The single runway, 05/23, is 3,400 m (11,155 ft) long and 45 m (148 ft) wide with an asphalt surface. It runs from south west to north east along the shoreline, with the terminals on the southern side. The length handles the XiamenAir Boeing 787-9 fleet on its long haul routes, and the Boeing 747 and Airbus A380 types that visit the TAECO hangars for heavy maintenance.
Xiamen Airport runs close to 200,000 movements a year on that one strip, which is why its 2025 total set a Chinese record for a single runway field. The schedule is tight from dawn to midnight and any disruption ripples through the day. The 23 approach comes in over the water between the island and the mainland.
Typhoons are the main hazard. The Fujian coast takes several direct hits each decade, and Typhoon Meranti in 2016 shut the airport and damaged buildings. Summer thunderstorms and the spring sea fog that rolls in from the strait cause most routine delays.
Terminals and Airlines
Terminal 3 is the main building and incorporates the original Terminal 2. It handles all international, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan flights and the domestic services of XiamenAir, China Southern and Hebei Airlines. An expansion in August 2024 added four gates. XiamenAir is a SkyTeam member, and the terminal hosts its partners along with Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Korean Air, ANA and the regional low cost carriers.
Terminal 4 opened in 2014 and takes the domestic flights of every other airline, including Air China, China Eastern, Shandong Airlines, Spring Airlines, Hainan Airlines and Sichuan Airlines. The two terminals are a few minutes apart by shuttle bus. A separate international arrivals hall in the old Terminal 2 opened in 2021 and closed again in 2023, with arrivals now back in Terminal 3.
TAECO, a joint venture involving the Hong Kong engineering group HAECO and XiamenAir, runs one of the largest maintenance bases in Asia at the airport.
Routes and Destinations
Domestic routes carry most of the traffic, with Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Xi’an and Kunming at the top. XiamenAir runs dense frequencies on the trunk routes and a wide regional network, and Fujian’s large overseas community generates steady traffic to South East Asia.
International service from Xiamen Airport is unusually broad for a city of its size. XiamenAir’s Boeing 787s have flown to Amsterdam, Paris, Sydney, Melbourne, Vancouver and Los Angeles, and today serve Doha, Male and, seasonally, London Heathrow, the longest current route at around 6,000 miles (9,650 km). Regional links cover Hong Kong, Taipei, Kaohsiung, Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Manila. Cargo is strong, driven by Fujian’s electronics and footwear exports.
Getting to and from Xiamen Airport
The airport is close to the city, which is its one great advantage over the replacement at Xiang’an. A taxi to the Zhongshan Road area takes 20 to 30 minutes and costs around 40 to 50 yuan (£4 to £5). Ride hailing cars use a dedicated pick up zone.
Several BRT and city bus routes link the terminals with the city centre, the railway stations and the university district, and are the cheapest sensible option at a few yuan. Airport shuttle buses run to Xiamen North railway station, the high speed rail hub on the mainland, in around 45 minutes. The Xiamen Metro does not yet serve the airport directly, though Line 1 stations lie a short bus ride away.
Car parks sit beside both terminals. The Xiamen Bridge and the Jimei Bridge connect the airport area with the mainland districts in minutes.
Spotting and Photography
Xiamen Airport is a popular spotting location because of the TAECO visitors. Wide bodies from Cathay Pacific, Air France, Lufthansa, Emirates and many others arrive for heavy maintenance, often in temporary liveries or bare metal. The terminal windows in Terminal 3 face the main apron and the runway, and the international pier catches the XiamenAir 787s.
Outside the fence, the shoreline road north of the runway near the Gaoqi end gives open views of the 23 approach over the water, and the parks along the northern coast of the island look across to the 05 threshold. The sun stays in the southern sky, so the southern side gives the best light for most of the day. Summer haze is heavy, so winter and spring give the clearest air.
Chinese security staff watch the perimeter, and the proximity of Kinmen makes the area sensitive. Stay on public roads and paths, carry identification and comply politely if asked to stop.
What Comes Next
Gaoqi is living on borrowed time. Xiamen Xiang’an International Airport is being built on Dadeng Island in Xiang’an District, east of the city, with two runways, a 550,000 square metre terminal and a capacity of up to 45 million passengers. It is scheduled to open in late 2026, and all civilian flights will move across at once. Metro links will connect it to Xiamen Railway Station.
The future of the Gaoqi site is still being decided. Proposals range from redevelopment to a general aviation and maintenance base built around the TAECO hangars, which would be expensive to move.
Xiamen Airport is a remarkable single runway operation that has outgrown its island, and its replacement cannot come too soon. See how it sits beside the other Chinese coastal hubs on the Airports of the World map.
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