Xiamen Airlines and Sichuan Airlines are China's latest airlines to fly long-haul; risks abound

Xiamen Airlines will be China's sixth airline to fly long-haul when it commences Xiamen-Amsterdam service as early as Jul-2015 using its new fleet of 787 Dreamliners. By the end of 2015, Xiamen Airlines expects to launch a four times weekly Xiamen-Sydney service. There could be later expansion to the US, but the longer flight length will be challenging.

Meanwhile, Sichuan Airlines is China's other new airline to fly long-haul. Services to Vancouver, Melbourne and Sydney will be followed by four times a week charter service Chengdu-Moscow with an A330.

Long-haul is a much smaller component of traffic than domestic flights for China's airlines, and this is especially true at secondary airlines like Xiamen and Sichuan, which have limited long-haul plans. No other Chinese airline already has or publicly intends to have widebody aircraft, but another long-haul Chinese carrier cannot be far away.