Direct charter flight services between the mainland and Taiwan for the upcoming Spring Festival are selling fast, as witnessed by two Shanghai-based airlines selling nearly 95 percent of their available tickets in the first hour of sale yesterday morning.

Zhu Weihua, a Taiwanese living in Qibao Town of west Shanghai's Minhang District, will be the first passenger of the service. 

"Last Spring Festival, my family and I flew the Shanghai Airline's shuttle between Shanghai and Taiwan," he recalled. In memory of that historic event, he says he keeps the souvenirs and Shanghai Airlines plane models handed-out on the trips.

"The direct service is much more convenient as it only takes some three hours to fly to Taiwan.  Previously, it could take as long as one day, as we had to change flights at Hong Kong or Macau," he added.

Six airlines from the mainland and six from Taiwan have agreed to provide 72 round-trips during the lunar New Year, which dawns on January 29. The other local carrier joining the direct service is China Eastern Airlines.

New Year flights will also operate from Beijing, Guangzhou and Xiamen on the mainland to Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan.

The service, previously limited to Taiwanese business people, has opened up this year to all Taiwanese living on the mainland.

(Shanghai Daily December 20, 2005)