A Boeing 747-400 plane with 236 passengers aboard flew non-stop
across the Taiwan Straits after it took off from Taipei at 7 AM on
Tuesday and touched down in Pudong Int'l Airport in Shanghai two
hours and 50 minutes later.
It is the first of the 96 planned round-trip direct charter
flights across the Taiwan Straits for this year's Spring Festival, the most important festival
for people of Chinese origin and an occasion for reunions of family
members, relatives and friends.
Tuesday's non-stop flight service across Taiwan Strait was run
by Mandarin Airlines of Taiwan.
Among the passengers were Taiwan investors' relatives who
traveled to Shanghai to join their beloved ones here, and some
tourists organized by a local travel agency of Taiwan to Shanghai,
according to a ground service worker with Shanghai-based China
Eastern Airlines.
The plane left Shanghai at 11:40 AM with 391 passengers aboard
and will arrive in Taipei at about 3 PM.
UNI Air, another air company from Taiwan, will also operate a
round-trip flight service between Kaohsiung and Guangzhou later on
Tuesday.
Apart from major festivals such as Spring Festival, there is no
direct air service across the Taiwan Strait. All air companies are
required by the Taiwan authorities to fly to their target
destinations on both sides of the Taiwan Strait via Hong Kong.
This year's direct charter flight service for Spring Festival is
the fourth of the kind. The first such service was done in
2003.
One passenger aboard Tuesday's Shanghai-bound direct charter
flight identified by his surname as Yang said it saved time by
flying the direct charter flight to Shanghai and hoped that the
non-stop charter flight service could be available on ordinary
days, to say weekends, and be extended to more cities on the
Chinese mainland so that he could visit more cities on the
mainland.
The direct flight service across the Taiwan Strait during this
year's Spring Festival will be operated by 12 air companies on the
both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Apart from Shanghai and Guangzhou, the direct charter flight s
will also be available to two more Chinese mainland cities of
Beijing and Xiamen.
This year's Spring Festival will start on Feb. 18. And direct
charter flight peak will occur Feb. 13-16 and Feb. 23-26.
(Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2007)
