- News>
- World
Taiwan agrees to indirect charter flights to China
Taipei, Dec 04: Taiwan approved a plan today to allow indirect charter flights to China for the lunar new year holiday, a largely symbolic but potentially significant move toward direct air links between the rivals.
Taipei, Dec 04: Taiwan approved a plan today to allow
indirect charter flights to China for the lunar new year
holiday, a largely symbolic but potentially significant move
toward direct air links between the rivals.
Under the new regulations, which China has yet to
approve, Taiwanese airlines would be allowed for the first
time in five decades to land in China. Taiwan banned the
flights in 1949 when the two sides split amid civil war.
But the new rules only allow Taiwanese airlines and foreign carriers, not Chinese planes, to fly the charter flights, restricted to one city in mainland China, Shanghai. The regulations also insist that the planes land in Hong Kong or Macau before flying to China and returning to Taiwan. However, passengers won't have to leave the planes and board another aircraft as they have had to do in the past.
Chen Ming-Tong, vice chairman of the cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council, said the charter flights might help motivate the two sides to work harder to negotiate direct flights.
"We're hoping that through this positive interaction, relations will improve," Chen told reporters. Taiwanese airlines have been eager to start the charter service, thinking that the flights would give them a foothold in the potentially huge China market.
The flights are designed to carry some of the estimated 3,00,000 Taiwanese who work in China and plan to return to Taiwan for the holiday, which this year begins on January 31. Many have had trouble in the past getting plane tickets during the lunar new year, the year's biggest holiday in ethnic Chinese communities. Bureau Report
But the new rules only allow Taiwanese airlines and foreign carriers, not Chinese planes, to fly the charter flights, restricted to one city in mainland China, Shanghai. The regulations also insist that the planes land in Hong Kong or Macau before flying to China and returning to Taiwan. However, passengers won't have to leave the planes and board another aircraft as they have had to do in the past.
Chen Ming-Tong, vice chairman of the cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council, said the charter flights might help motivate the two sides to work harder to negotiate direct flights.
"We're hoping that through this positive interaction, relations will improve," Chen told reporters. Taiwanese airlines have been eager to start the charter service, thinking that the flights would give them a foothold in the potentially huge China market.
The flights are designed to carry some of the estimated 3,00,000 Taiwanese who work in China and plan to return to Taiwan for the holiday, which this year begins on January 31. Many have had trouble in the past getting plane tickets during the lunar new year, the year's biggest holiday in ethnic Chinese communities. Bureau Report