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.