The airline was formed as a joint venture subsidiary of HNA Group and Fuzhou Municipal Government.

[2][3] On 17 October 2014, the carrier secured its Air Operators Certificate (AOC) from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

The major shareholder of the company is the HNA Group (CNY1.2 billion, 60% stake), with the balance split between the Fuzhou State-owned Investment Holdings Co. keeping 20% of the shares and Century Golden Resources Group and Ningbo Ruitong Network Technology Co. having 10% each.

[9] Prior to the launch of services, the airline stated it had been approved to initially fly to seven domestic destinations from Fuzhou: Chongqing, Kunming, Haikou, Hefei, Taiyuan, Tianjin and Xi'an.

[13] Fuzhou Airlines started operations with a fleet of two of these aircraft using a seating layout able to accommodate 8 passengers in Business and 156 in Economy class.