Passengers can take 24 round-trip charter flights across the
Taiwan Straits during the Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional Chinese
feast, said the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC)
Friday.
Twelve airline companies, six from Chinese mainland and six from
Taiwan, will operate the flights between four mainland cities
Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen and Taipei of Taiwan, from
Sept. 18 to Oct. 2, the administration said.
The Mid-Autumn Festival, whose date varies every year according
to Chinese lunar calendar, will fall on Sept. 25 this year.
It is said, according to Chinese tradition, that at the
Mid-Autumn Festival the full moon is the roundest and brightest in
the whole year.
Chinese family members and close friends usually dine together
at an open place to enjoy the bright moonlight on that night, a
custom dating back about 1,500 years.
About 4 million people from Taiwan visit the Chinese mainland
annually and an increasing number of Taiwan residents stay on the
other side of the Straits for business and study.
But no direct regular flights have been available across the
Taiwan Straits for more than five decades. Passengers must transfer
at Hong Kong or Macao, costing more time and money.
The two sides worked out a solution of operating direct charter
flights at festivals.
The first non-stop charter flights were launched during the
Chinese Lunar New Year in 2005.
On June 14, 2006, the mainland-based Cross-Straits Aviation
Transport Exchange Council and the Taipei Airlines Association
agreed to open charter flights for other traditional festivals,
including Tomb-sweeping Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn
Festival.
The Chinese mainland has repeatedly called for weekend and
regular charter flights across the Straits.
(Xinhua News Agency September 8, 2007)