All mainland cities, including Harbin and Jinan, which become newly operating scheduled direct passenger flights to Taiwan, have cancelled the flight launch ceremony due to the Dalai Lama's recent visit to Taiwan, chinataiwan.org reported on Monday.

The provinces, airports and aviation companies involved into opening the new services had made a month-long preparation for the launch ceremony. And some official delegations were scheduled to board their first charter planes to conduct exchange activities in Taiwan.

The cancellation of the launch ceremony and relevant activities is one of the latest moves in expression of Chinese mainland's resolute opposition against the Dalai Lama's visit to Taiwan.

The mainland also notified the aviation companies in Taiwan of the cancellation of the celebration for Taiwan planes' maiden arrivals at the newly-opened mainland destinations.

Six cities, including Hefei, Harbin, Nanchang, Guiyang, Ningbo and Jinan, are joining another 21 mainland cities in operating direct passenger flights to Taiwan, bringing the number of regular cross-Straits direct passenger flights to 270 from 108 a week, according to Civil Aviation Administration of China on Monday.

(CRI September 1, 2009)