The Chinese mainland and Taiwan have agreed to renew non-stop
charter flights across the Straits for next year's
Spring Festival, Beijing announced yesterday.
The announcement was made by Pu Zhaozhou, vice president of the
mainland-based Cross-Straits Aviation Transport Exchange Council,
at a news conference held by the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office.
In line with the agreement, the charter flights will run for 25
days from January 20 to February 13 next year. All the flights will
be required to fly through Hong Kong airspace.
The number of mainland cities to be linked with Taiwan by the
charter flights will be increased by one, with Xiamen added to
Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Taipei and Kaoshiung will remain the two destinations on the
island to be serviced by the flights.
A total of 72 round trips will be operated by six mainland and
six Taiwanese airlines.
Apart from Taiwan businessmen and their families, other Taiwan
residents who can legally travel between the island and the
mainland will be allowed to take the flights for the first
time.
Pu said the agreement had been brokered between his organization
and Taipei Airlines Association, but declined to reveal any details
about the negotiation process.
Both sides will conduct more talks on technical, logistic and
other related issues to prepare for the charter flights during next
year's Spring Festival, which falls on January 29.
The negotiations for next year's Spring Festival went much more
smoothly than for this year's, which took months of hard work and
were completed only two weeks before the flights began.
Between January 29 and February 20 this year, two-way, non-stop
charter flights operated between Taiwan and the mainland.
Six mainland and six Taiwanese airlines operated a total of 48
charter flights, carrying more than 10,000 mainland-based Taiwanese
businessmen and their families home and then back again.
The charter flights were the first non-stop air links across the
Taiwan Straits in 56 years because Taipei has banned transport,
trade and postal links with the mainland since 1949. Cross-Straits
flights usually have to touch down in Hong Kong or Macao.
He Shizhong, director of the Economic Bureau with the Taiwan
Affairs Office, welcomed the arrangement, saying the charter
services will greatly facilitate the travels of Taiwan
compatriots.
More than half a million Taiwanese businessmen and their
families are estimated to live and work on the mainland and
hundreds of thousands of them return to the island for family
reunions each Spring Festival.
He, however, regretted that next year's cross-Straits charter
flight arrangement is still a one-off scheme that suffers from a
limited number of destinations, and excludes mainland people from
the service.
"What's more, they cannot really be considered direct flights
across the Straits because of the Hong Kong detour," he said.
The director insisted that the cross-Straits charter flights
should be operated for other major Chinese festivals, weekends and,
eventually, become regular.
In a related development, the "Mainland Affairs Council" --
Taiwan's top policy-making body on cross-Straits policy, stopped a
planned visit to Taiwan by Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan
Affairs Office.
Chen had been invited by Kuomintang to visit Taiwan for a
high-level forum in mid-December.
(China Daily November 19, 2005)