At 11:00 a.m. November 15, a brand new Boeing 737-800 aircraft landed at Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport (XMN) and joined the fleet of Xiamen Airlines (MF), which is the 100th Boeing aircraft introduced by the airline, marking a milestone for the airline's evolvement from a medium-sized carrier to a large-sized one.

It is learnt that Xiamen Airlines plans to grow its operational fleet to 136 airplanes in next two years, including 30 Boeing 737-800s and six 787s. Recently, the Xiamen-based airline released that it will start another large-scale introduction of aircraft again starting from 2016 after the 36 aircraft in place, and it has signed a purchase agreement for 70 Boeing 737NG and 737MAX aircraft with Boeing, which will bring its fleet size over 200 in 2020.

Formed in 1984 as China's first joint venture between CAAC and a municipal government, Xiamen Airlines started services in 1985 with two Boeing 737-200s serving three cities. The carrier has grown into China's sixth largest carrier serving 218 domestic routes and 26 international and regional routes. With today's delivery of a Boeing 737-800, Xiamen Airlines' fleet now consists of 100 airplanes - 17 737-700s, 77 737-800s and six 757-200s.