An official of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC)
Friday urged the Taiwan authorities to make concrete efforts for
direct cross-Straits chartered flights during the coming Spring
Festival, the most important traditional festival of the Chinese
people.
To fulfill the family reunion wishes of Taiwanese businessmen on
the mainland and their relatives, the mainland has always supported
more convenient cross-Straits transport service and would
facilitate any efforts to bring about such links, said Pu Zhaozhou,
director of CAAC's Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao affairs office.
Although the air companies of the mainland expressed their
strong wishes to participate in cross-Straits chartered flights,
they were not able to do so last Spring Festival. But they still
showed their sincerity and goodwill by providing technical support
for the Taiwanese airlines allowed to take chartered flights.
Pu pointed out that last year's cross-Straits chartered flights
were just unilateral and indirect because of unreasonable
restrictions of the Taiwan authorities. Many Taiwanese businessmen
complained the indirect flights were wasting time and increasing
the cost.
As the 2004 Spring Festival is to come late January, air
companies of the mainland have again expressed their hopes for a
fair chance to participate in the cross-Straits chartered
flights.
Although the Taiwan authorities proposed some "new" suggestions,
in reality the proposal is still unilateral and indirect, and the
mainland air companies would still be limited in their
participation in cross-Straits chartered flights, said Pu.
"We hope the Taiwan authorities will not set contrived barriers
and will not impose unfeasible and unfair preconditions for the
cooperation of both sides," said Pu.
During the traditional Spring Festival period early 2003, six
Taiwan-based airlines ran 16 cross-Straits chartered flights
between Taipei, Kaohsiung and Shanghai, bringing home Taiwanese
business people on the mainland and later back to the mainland.
This was the first time since the founding of the People's
Republic of China in 1949 that Taiwanese civil airplanes flew to
the Chinese mainland. However, as required by the Taiwan
authorities, the flights had to stop over in Hong Kong or Macao on
their way to or from Shanghai, and no airlines from the Chinese
mainland were involved.
(Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2003)