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Spring Festival chartered flights start
By Li Luxia/Zhan Lisheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-01-21 07:00
Taiwan's China Airlines charter flight 585 touched down at Shanghai's Pudong
Airport at 10:34 am on Friday, signalling the first charter flight across the
Taiwan Straits for this year's Spring Festival.
It left on the return trip 2 hours later and arrived at Taipei at 3:08 pm.
A China Airlines plane from Taiwan lands at
Shanghai Pudong International Airport January 20, 2006, bringing the first
group of Spring Festival travellers to the mainland and lifting the
curtain of the chartered flights between Taiwan and the mainland.
[newsphoto] |
This year's charter flights have been expanded to allow all Taiwanese with
valid travel documents across the Straits to fly, whereas last year's charters
were restricted to mainland-based Taiwan business people and their families.
The non-stop charters are the closest thing to direct flights across the
Straits, which Taiwanese authorities have banned since 1949. The planes
technically must fly through Hong Kong or Macao air space.
The flight had 310 passengers aboard, though China Airlines officials said
they had expected about 200 for the first trip.
"It's more convenient and faster to travel between Taiwan and the mainland,"
said the first passenger who got off the plane, surnamed Zhang. "The trip took
me less than three hours."
A businessman named Yang was impressed by the customs clearance at Pudong
Airport.
"It took me only seven minutes to pass through a special channel set for
Taiwanese passengers," said Yang, who runs a factory in Kunshan, East China's
Jiangsu Province.
According to Dong Guoliang, the head of the mainland office of China
Airlines, 12 charter flights are scheduled this year.
The tickets for the first return charter flight were sold out, though the
fare was raised because of an increase in the oil price and other factors.
In Guangzhou, China Southern Airlines reports it's ready for this year's
first non-stop Spring Festival chartered flight to Taiwan, scheduled for 10 am
Wednesday.
Tang Jing'an, who will be the captain of that first chartered flight, said:
"All the crew members believe we will make smooth, safe and sound flights."
The company has scheduled six flights to Taiwan and another six back to
Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province.
According to Si Xianmin, general manager of China Southern, the company will
use Boeing 777s for the flights and on each flight there will be two veteran
captains and one technician.
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