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Non-stop charter flight peak begins The non-stop charter flight peak between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan was ushered in with the touchdown of a charter plane CI585 of the Taiwan-based China Airlines at the Pudong International Airport of Shanghai. According to a schedule published by the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC), there will be altogether 34 charter flights before the start of the traditional Chinese Spring Festival, which falls on next Wednesday. They consist of seven non-stop, return-trip flights on Saturday, four more on Sunday and another six on next Monday, with Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, or Kaohsiung, Taipei as places of departure, respectively. Saturday's charter flights will be operated by four Chinese mainland and two Taiwan air carriers. The first charter plane in 56 years from the Chinese mainland carrying some 242 Taiwan business people and their families landed in Taipei without a stopover last Saturday. The charter flights that day unveiled the curtain of a three- week-long special charter flight scheme, under which 12 airlines of the mainland and Taiwan would run 48 non-stop, round-trip flights exclusively for the Taiwan business people and their families. The mainland and Taiwan civil aviation professionals reached consensus about the launch of the charter flights earlier last month in Macao. The two sides agreed to run the flights from Jan. 29 to Feb. 20 between mainland cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and Taiwan's Taipei and Kaohsiung. The charter flights were warmly welcomed by the Taiwan business people and their relatives. China Southern Airlines sources revealed that some of the passengers on board its plane had booked round-trip tickets simply to bear witness to this important journey. "They would also be on the plane when it returns in the afternoon," said the sources. In 2003, Taiwan civil jetliners were allowed for the first time since 1949 to fly to the mainland under a similar charter flight scheme. However, due to restrictions of the Taiwan authorities, the flights had to make stopovers in Hong Kong or Macao and no mainland airlines were involved. It is estimated that there are now more than 700,000 Taiwan business people investing in the mainland and staying here for most time of the year. So the non-stop charter flights become imperative as quite a number of home-going Taiwan business people also complained that the current charter flights were not as direct and convenient as what they had expected. |
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