Taiwan, China agree on cross-strait holiday flights

        The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and its Chinese counterpart, the Taiwan Affairs Office, announced Nov. 18 that they had agreed to allow special holiday cross-strait charter flights to operate between Jan. 20 and Feb. 13, 2006, similar to the formula adopted during the past Lunar New Year.

        The scheme for next year is much broader compared to previous cross-strait charter-flight agreements, with governments on the two sides agreeing to relax restrictions on passenger numbers and increase the number of flights and destinations in China, according to MAC Vice Chairman Johnnason Liu.

        Under the new scheme, all Taiwanese residents will be eligible to travel via the holiday charter flights provided they have the proper documentation, such as entry and exit visas. When the Lunar New Year charter flights first took place in 2003, they were aimed at facilitating the reunion of Taiwanese businesspeople and their families in China with relatives in Taiwan during the holiday period.

        MAC Chairman Joseph Wu said Nov. 21 that, due to the restrictions on passengers, there was an excess of empty seats on the holiday charter flights this year. In order to improve the profitability of such flights, MAC decided to relax the restrictions in order to better accommodate the needs of both travelers and airline operators.

        "Residents in Taiwan can use the charter-flight services, including Taiwanese people who want to travel to China and Chinese spouses living in Taiwan, as long as they have the correct documents to enter and exit," Liu said.

        According to Liu, Xiamen will be another destination this year, in addition to last year's flights to Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. The number of flights will also increase from 48 to 72 during the 25-day period, with each side operating 36 flights.

        The routes and the destinations in Taiwan, on the other hand, will remain the same as in 2005. The charters are scheduled to run through the existing routes between Chiang Kai-shek International Airport and Kaohsiung International Airport, through Hong Kong air space and then on to the four destinations in China.

        "We had suggested new routes--via Cheju Island and Okinawa--in a bid to shorten the route via Hong Kong during the negotiations, but the suggestion was not approved by the other side," Liu said.

        Lin Chih-ming, director of the Department of Aviation and Navigation under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC), said Nov. 21 that a set of regulations governing applications from local airlines seeking to operate holiday charter flights were forwarded to the MAC for approval.

        Lin said the MOTC would begin to accept applications by local airlines as soon as relevant regulations are approved by the MAC, Taiwan's top China policymaking body.