The China Airlines jumbo jet flew into Shanghai, via Hong Kong, to pick up 243 Taiwanese passengers returning home for the Chinese Lunar New Year - the most important holiday for family reunions that begins on February 1.

About four hours after leaving Shanghai, the Boeing 747-400 reached Taipei following a 30-minute stop, again in Hong Kong.

In Shanghai, Taiwan airline executives, mainland government officials and other dignitaries popped champagne and exchanged toasts before the passengers boarded the plane.

Many of the passengers recorded the event, which was also marked by a celebratory lion dance, on their video cameras, as 180 reporters from over 70 countries looked on.

"This is a breakthrough in cross-Straits relations," Shanghai Vice-Mayor Han Zheng said at the ceremony to mark the first flights.

But he noted that the indirect charter flights still "cannot eradicate the inconvenience to Taiwan compatriots".

"Like most Taiwan investors in Shanghai, we hope that the day of direct flights will come soon."

A direct flight from Taipei to Shanghai would take only about 90 minutes compared with more than four hours for the current arrangement - with a detour to Hong Kong or Macao.

The view was echoed by some Taiwan passengers who are growing impatient with the island authorities' refusal to lift the ban on cross-Straits direct air links.

"This was an exciting moment today. But it was too small a step," said Chen Pin, a Taiwan businessman on yesterday's flight.

"Taiwanese leaders should have the courage and wisdom to take a bigger step. It's the Taiwanese who will benefit, after all," he said after arriving in Taipei.

Taiwan "legislator" John Chang of the opposition Nationalist Party, who first proposed the idea of direct charter flights, told BBC: "I will see the first flight from Taipei land in Shanghai. I would imagine it to be like the first swallow telling people that springtime is not distant," he said. "I really hope things will change for good in the right direction."

Yesterday's flight was the first of 32 indirect charter flights - through February 9 - scheduled by Taiwanese airlines.

The mainland allowed six Taiwan carriers - China Airlines, Far Eastern Air Transport Corp, EVA Airways, UNI Airways, Mandarin Airlines and TransAsia Airways - to make the flights.

TransAsia Airways also had a flight from Pudong airport yesterday.

Booming Shanghai has attracted more than 300,000 people from Taiwan who invest and live in the city and nearby areas. They used to take other airlines - like Shanghai Airlines or Dragonair - to Hong Kong or Macao where they had to stay for up to two hours before switching planes to Taiwan.

Now with the indirect charter flights in place, passengers spend two hours less on the journey and can save the trouble of changing planes.

According to Shanghai's Taiwan Affairs Office, more than 1,200 tickets have been sold to Taiwan passengers, achieving an average occupancy rate per flight of nearly 70 per cent.

Analysts said the occupancy rate would have been higher if indirect flights had been launched earlier.

The cheapest tickets on the chartered planes cost 3,700 yuan (US$447), about 20 per cent less than a regular flight.

| frontpage | nation | business | HK\Taiwan | snapshots | focus |
| governmentinfo | economic insights | campus life | Shanghai today | metropolitan |