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Cross-Straits charter flights expand
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-06-14 16:41
A mainland passenger
jet is ready to take off from Xiamen, Fujian province for Taiwan in this
January 25, 2006 photo. The flight was part of chartered flight
arrangement during the Spring Festival.
[newsphoto] |
Aviation organizations of the Chinese mainland and Taiwan have agreed to open
chartered flights for more traditional festivals in addition to the Spring
Festival.
Chartered flights will be arranged for during Qingming, or the
tomb-sweeping festival, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival,
besides the Chinese lunar new year season, according to the agreement.
China's General Administration of Civil Aviation (CAAC) announced on
Wednesday that the mainland-based Cross-Straits Aviation Transport Exchange
Council and the Taipei Airlines Association have reached a consensus on the
framework of chartered flights for festivals and special cases.
The
festival chartered flights will be opened during the 14 days around the Spring
Festival, and the seven days around the other three festivals, according to the
agreement.
Each side will undertake 84 round flights, including 48
during the Spring Festival, according to the agreement.
The destinations
of the chartered flights include Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen on the
mainland, and Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan. All Taiwan residents, businessmen
and their relatives with valid certificates can take the flights.
Six
airline companies on each side will carry out the chartered flights. Specific
arrangements will follow the operation of the Spring Festival chartered flights
in 2006, the agreement said.
The two sides also agreed to open chartered
flights for emergent medical rescue, first aid for the handicapped and chartered
cargo flights for special need.
"We welcome any progress in promoting
direct, two-way and comprehensive links across the Taiwan Straits, which is of
the interests of the Chinese compatriots on both sides," Pu Zhaozhou, director
of the Cross-Straits Aviation Transport Exchange Council, said Wednesday.
"Our sincerity to promote direct air links between the mainland and
Taiwan has never changed," Pu said.
The new agreement, however, still
cannot meet the demand on direct transportation links from the compatriots on
both sides, he added.
"We hope the Taiwan authorities can abide by their
pledges and approve talks to make arrangement for weekend or regular chartered
flights and facilitate cargo flights as soon as possible to satisfy the
compatriots' demand," he urged.
A spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office
of the State Council welcomed the agreement on chartered flights and called for
the launch of chartered flights at weekends or on a regular base and realization
of direct air services across the Taiwan Straits.
Direct air links have
become an urgent issue facing the cross-Straits exchanges with the development
of economic and trade relations between the two sides, said the spokesman.
It is the demand of millions of Taiwan compatriots who come to the
mainland every year for business, visiting relatives and travel. It's also the
demand of Taiwan farmers who want to lower transportation cost of selling their
fruits and vegetables to the mainland, the spokesman said.
When meeting
with Lien Chan, then head of the Kuomintang (KMT) party, and James CY Soong,
chairman of the People First Party (PFP), in 2005, Hu Jintao, general secretary
of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, expressed the mainland's
consistent standpoint to push forward two-way and comprehensive "three direct
links" in mail, transport and trade across the Straits.
The agreement is
a new step forward after aviation organizations on both sides held talks on
chartered flights following Hu's meetings with Lien and Soong, said the
spokesman.
However, the current chartered flights arrangement is not
enough under the context of increasing demand on cross-straits trade
exchanges,passenger flow and tourism development, said the spokesman.
People on both sides are eagerly looking forward to weekend chartered
flights or flights on a more regular base and even the realization of
comprehensive, two-way direct air services, the spokesman said.
"We hope
Taiwan authorities can offer convenience for the aviation organizations on both
sides to continue talks on this issue," said the spokesman.
The first
non-stop chartered flights across the Taiwan Straits was launched during the
Chinese lunar new year in 2005. And 72 round flights were arranged during the
Spring Festival of 2006.
Qingming, an occasion for Chinese people to pay
homage to their ancestors and deceased beloved ones, falls on April 5 or 6.
The Dragon Boat Festival, celebrated by racing dragon boats, eating
"Zongzi" - rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves - and hanging wormwood around
houses, falls on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month.
The Mid-Autumn
Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the
8th lunar month, is observed as a day for family
reunion.
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