A Xiamen Airlines plane flies over Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport on June 29, 2024. [Photo/VCG]

Xiamen Airlines, which celebrated its 40th anniversary on Thursday, has formulated an ambitious development blueprint, and is aiming for an outstanding performance in the next few decades, according to the company.

Established in July 1984 in Xiamen, a coastal city in East China's Fujian province, Xiamen Airlines was the first airline in China to operate under a modern corporate system. Over the past four decades, the carrier's total assets have increased from 14 million yuan ($1.93 million) to 56.1 billion yuan.

Addressing a conference on the occasion of the 40th year since its founding, Zhao Dong, chairman of Xiamen Airlines, said Xiamen is one of the pillars in China's reform and opening-up.

"Xiamen Airlines will fully leverage the leading role of civil aviation to serve economic and social development and advance exchanges and cooperation across the Taiwan Strait," Zhao said.

With a fleet of 213 aircraft, Xiamen Airlines operates more than 400 domestic and international routes, serving nearly 40 million passengers annually. Its accumulated safe flight hours have exceeded 8.46 million hours.

In 1986, Xiamen Airlines received its first aircraft in the city of its birth, embarking on a long journey of independent operation. It achieved profitability the following year and has since maintained a world record of sustained profitability for 37 years in the civil aviation industry, beating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite fierce competition in the global aviation market and a constantly changing external environment, the airline has continued to adjust its business model and gradually expand its market share.

Han Jun, deputy head of aviation industry regulator, the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said during the conference that Xiamen Airlines' growth and expansion signify the development of China's civil aviation sector from small to large, and from weak to strong. Such a development process also indicates the position of civil aviation as an important strategic industry of the country.

"The civil aviation industry in China shall seriously implement the spirit of the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and continuously enhance the core competitiveness of the sector," Han said.