. The first Mid-Autumn Festival charter flight from Taiwan arrived in Shanghai on Friday, marking another step towards establishing regular cross-Straits air links. The charter flight of Taiwan-based Eva Airways arrived in Shanghai on Friday afternoon with 308 passengers on board. The flight returned to Taipei later on Friday. The flight signalled the extension of the cross-Straits charter flight service, which used to be restricted to the Spring Festival. Eva Airways has prepared moon-cakes and other traditional Mid-Autumn Festival refreshments for passengers, said Liu Yingjun, the airline's public relations officer. Eva Airways had scheduled another round-trip charter flight between Taipei and Shanghai on October 8, Liu added. Together with Eva Airways, 11 other airlines from the mainland and Taiwan will run a total of 24 round-trip charter flights until October 13. The flights will run from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou on the mainland to Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan Province. The charter services are in line with a landmark agreement reached between Taiwan and the mainland, which also allows similar flights for other traditional Chinese holidays including the Qingming Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Spring Festival. The two sides exchanged non-stop charter flights for the first time in more than 50 years during the Spring Festival in 2005. In 2005, 5,877 passengers took Spring Festival charter flights, while the number soared to 27,276 this year. By Xing Zhigang (China Daily) (Agencies)

首架中秋兩岸包機于本周五抵達臺灣，標志著兩岸通航關系又向前邁進了一步。 臺灣長榮航空公司的一架包機共搭乘308名乘客，于周五下午抵達上海，之后又于當天飛回臺北。 兩岸包機原本只限于春節，此次中秋包機標志著兩岸節日包機服務范圍的進一步擴大。 長榮航空公司公共關系部經理劉英軍說，長榮航空公司為乘客們準備了月餅和其他一些傳統中秋點心。 劉經理說，長榮航空將在10月8日再飛一個從臺北至上海的往返航班。 除長榮航空外，截止至10月13日，兩岸還將有11家航空公司執飛往返包機共24架次。 這些包機航班將從北京、上海和廣州飛往臺北和高雄市。 兩岸節日包機服務符合兩岸達成的重要協議精神，主要在中秋節、清明節、端午節和春節等我國傳統節日期間提供包機服務。 2005年春節，兩岸50年來首次實現直飛包機。 2005年，共有5877位乘客搭乘兩岸春節包機，今年這個數字增加到27276人。 (英語點津姍姍編輯)