Xiamen Air launches U.S. service

China’s Xiamen Air launched service to Seattle on Monday.

The route, from Xiamen to Shenzhen and then onto Seattle, is Xiamen Air’s first service to the U.S. It’s also the first direct service between the U.S. and Shenzhen, a southeast China coastal city of nearly 11 million people that is located just a dozen miles from Hong Kong.

The city of Xiamen, where the flight originates, is located approximately 400 miles northeast of Shenzhen along the Taiwan Strait.

Xiamen Air is offering the flight on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The carrier is one of 17 members of the SkyTeam alliance. It has become the fifth Chinese airline that flies to the U.S.