On Tuesday, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC)
named the six Chinese mainland airlines that will participate in
non-stop charter flights across the Taiwan Straits during the
coming
Spring Festival period.
The six companies are Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China
Southern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Xiamen Airlines and Hainan
Airlines.
They will run 24 flights across the straits: six of them, with
Air China and Hainan Airlines, will fly from Beijing; ten China
Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines flights will start from
Shanghai; eight, with China Southern Airlines and Xiamen Airlines,
will run from Guangzhou.
A source from the CAAC said the airlines are negotiating with
their Taiwan counterparts on ground services.
Chinese mainland and Taiwan civil aviation circles reached
consensus on Saturday to provide non-stop flights during the Spring
Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year.
According to the agreement, non-stop flights between the
mainland cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Taiwan's Taipei
and Kaohsiung will be in operation from January 29 to February 20
for Taiwanese business people working on the mainland and their
relatives to visit home.
Six airlines from each side of the straits will operate the
round-trips via Hong Kong airspace.
In 2003, Taiwanese civil airplanes were allowed to fly direct to
the Chinese mainland for the first time since 1949. However, the
flights had to stop over in Hong Kong or Macao, and no mainland
airlines were involved.
(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2005)