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| Flight CZ3097 of China Southern Airlines flight
docks at a tarmac in Taipei January 29, 2005.
(newsphoto) |
After a half-century without non-stop airline
links between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, nine charter flights took
place on Saturday under a cross-Straits agreement for Spring Festival
travel.
Six mainland planes landed in Taipei and one in
the southern city of Kaohsiung
for the first time in 56 years. Meanwhile, Taiwan's China
Airlines and EVA Airways operated two non-stop flights from Taipei to
Beijing the first since 1949.
Flight CA1087 of the mainland's flag carrier Air China departed from
the Beijing Capital International Airport at 8 am for Taipei, becoming the
first mainland commercial plane to take off.
Charter flight CZ3097 of China Southern Airlines, however, was the
first mainland aircraft to land in Taiwan after a 90-minute journey
between Guangzhou and Taipei.
"The dream that we had over the past 56 years finally came true today,"
said Chen Yunlin, minister of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State
Council, upon the arrival of CAL's CI581 in Beijing.
Since 1949, the Taiwan authorities have imposed a ban on trade, postal
and transport links with the mainland.
In 2003, six Taiwanese airlines operated 16
charter flights between Taipei, Kaohsiung and Shanghai, with stopovers
in Hong Kong or Macao.
Meanwhile, mainland carriers were excluded from the indirect charter
flight arrangement.
John Chang, a Kuomintang "lawmaker" who initiated the cross-Straits
charter flight programme in 2002, compared Saturday's flights to "swallows
that foretell the coming of spring."
"The successful launching of such charter flights has fully
demonstrated that both sides of the Straits have enough wisdom, farsight
and patience to solve existing problems," he told a celebration ceremony
to mark the start of the historic flights in Beijing.
"We hope the charter flights will help ease cross-Straits tensions and
improve bilateral relations."
Li Jiaxiang, president of Air China, expressed his wish for an early
realization of direct air links between Taiwan and the mainland to make it
more convenient for travellers from both sides.
"It is the common aspiration of all people across the Straits that the
charter flights could become regular air services to save time and money,"
he said.
China Airlines President Phillip Wei said his company was glad to
participate in the charter flight programme despite a predicted loss for
its four round-trip charter flights.
"We are proud of running the first and historic flight between Taipei
and Beijing," he said.
Many passengers returned to their ports of departure on the same
aircraft on Saturday after joining flights just to be a part of the
memorable moment, airline officials said.
The nine charter planes all returned to their home bases later
Saturday, transporting a total of 2,200 mainland-based Taiwan business
people and their relatives.
The charter flights will run until February 20 between the mainland
cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Taipei, Kaohsiung in Taiwan.
The one-time scheme allows six mainland and six Taiwanese airlines to
operate a total of 48 round-trip charter flights during the Chinese Lunar
New Year holiday.
Only mainland-based Taiwanese business people and their relatives can
participate.
(China Daily) | 
Updated: 2005-01-31 08:58