While direct flights to Taiwan are still politically impossible,
a smooth journey across the Taiwan Straits will soon become a
reality for thousands of Taiwanese doing business with the
mainland.
At a joint press conference yesterday, Xiamen International
Airport Group and Taiwan-based Uni Air announced that they'll work
together to provide daily, seamless transfer services for
passengers traveling across the Straits beginning this month.
According to the arrangement, passengers from the mainland must
first fly to Xiamen where they'll pass through a special air-sea
joint operation service counter at the airport.
The counter will clear customs and handle ticket and baggage
issues for the passengers before they are transferred to Jinmen by
boat to take another flight to Taiwan proper via Uni Air. Jinmen is
the closest Taiwanese island to the mainland and 13 kilometers from
Xiamen.
Currently, Uni Air's flights connect Jinmen with the Taiwanese
cities of Taipei, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan and Kaohsiung. Service
counters like the one in Xiamen will also be set up in the airports
of these five cities where travelers will get relevant issues
settled before they make the transfer to the mainland.
"Taiwanese passengers only need to make a phone call to us to
get everything settled, including the air and shipping tickets and
relevant procedures," said Chen Shyong-jyh, vice president of Uni
Airways Corp. "Their baggage will also go to their designated
destinations directly."
Such seamless services will cut traveling costs for Taiwanese
businessmen by at least a third and the travel time would be
greatly shortened, according to company executives of Xiamen
airport.
For example a round trip between Shanghai and Taipei will
require only five hours under the new arrangements at a cost of
2,500 yuan (US$312) compared with at least seven hours and 4,000
yuan (US$500) by non-stop charter flight via Hong Kong or
Macao.
Statistics show at least 80,000 trips are made by Taiwan
business people to and from Shanghai every month. There are almost
a million such visits a year.
"It's really a boon to Taiwan business people and investors to
have such a cooperative arrangement," said Jiang Xinda, vice
secretary-general of the Association of Shanghai Taiwan Businessmen
Invested Enterprises which has membership of at least 1,000.
"However, we have to see how this works out in the long run."
Shanghai reportedly has the largest Taiwanese community on the
mainland with the number of their registered companies being
approximately 5,000. Direct links have become a pressing issue in
cross-Straits exchanges with the development of economic and trade
relations between the two sides.
The mainland has been pushing for the two-way implementation of
"three direct links" in mail, transport and trade but the political
views of Taiwanese authorities have stalled progress on the
issue.
The new arrangement with Xiamen International Airport and Uni
Air could be called a "mini direct link" which was a good
compromise based on the current political environment, observed
experts.
(China Daily August 3, 2006)