Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport

Imperial Japan builds the airfield during its occupation of Xiamen, using it for both military defense purposes and limited scheduled civilian flights to Taipei, Fuzhou, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

Following renovations for military use against Nationalist-held territory in the early 1950s, the airfield is largely abandoned because of its proximity to the front line facing Kinmen (Quemoy) island just offshore.

The airport reopens for civil aviation, financed by a loan from the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development — reportedly the first airport in China built with foreign funding and operated by a local government rather than the central state. The first flight, CAAC service to Shanghai, launches from the new Terminal 1.

A second passenger terminal opens as traffic continues to grow.

Terminal 3 opens, described at the time as the largest and most advanced passenger terminal in China.

Terminal 4 is completed and opens on 28 December 2014, further expanding capacity.

The airport handles roughly 29.2 million passengers in 2025, a record for a single-runway airport in China.

Gaoqi is planned to cease all civilian traffic once the new Xiamen Xiang'an International Airport — designed for two runways, a 550,000 sq m terminal and 45 million annual passengers — is completed and begins operations. As of the 2026-08-29 reference date this transition, reportedly targeted for late 2026, had not yet been confirmed as complete; large Chinese airport openings have slipped before, so the date should be treated as provisional.