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Mainland, Taiwan clinch deal on direct flights
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-15 23:05
The Chinese mainland and Taiwan reached a landmark deal on Saturday to allow
non-stop charter flights over the Chinese New Year holidays, a move which could
ease tensions and improve cross-Straits ties.
The one-off deal will allow the first direct flights between the Taiwan
Straits since 1949, and could mark a step toward ending a decades-old ban on
direct air links.
Pu Zhaozhou (R), vice chairman of
the board of directors of the mainland-based Straits Aviation Exchange
Commission, chats with Mike Lo, chairman of Taipei Airlines Association,
during a news conference after their meeting in Macao January 15, 2005.
Taiwan and the mainland reached an agreement on Saturday on landmark
direct flights over the Chinese New Year holidays between Beijing,
Shanghai and Guangzhou in mainland China, along with Taipei and Kaohsiung
in Taiwan, a move which could ease tensions and improve ties between the
two sides of the Taiwan Straits. [Reuters] | "In a
very short time, in a cordial atmosphere, we have come to an agreement," Pu
Zhaozhou, vice chairman of the board of directors of the mainland-based Straits
Aviation Exchange Commission, told a joint news conference after talks in the
southern Chinese territory of Macao.
However, while the flights will be non-stop, they will still have to go
through Hong Kong or Macao airspace.
"The flights have to go through Hong Kong but they don't have to land," said
Mike Lo, chairman of the Taipei Airlines Association.
Lo said the flights would be for Taiwan businessmen and their families in the
mainland.
Taiwan's Civil
Aeronautics Administration Chief Billy Chang (L) is greeted by Pu Zhaozhou
(R) vice chairman of the board of directors of the mainland-based Straits
Aviation Exchange Commission before their meeting in Macao January 15,
2005. The two sides held talks on Saturday on landmark direct flights over
the Chinese New Year holidays, a move which could ease tensions and
improve the cross-Straits relations.
[Reuters] | Forty-eight flights will be allowed under the agreement, beginning on January
29 and ending on February 20, Pu said. He did not specify whether the first
would take off from the mainland or Taiwan.
Taiwan has banned direct air and shipping links with the mainland since the
Nationalists lost the Chinese civil war in 1949 and fled to the island.
Travellers between Taiwan and the mainland must now fly via a third
destination, usually Hong Kong or Macao on China's southern coast, adding four
hours to what should be an hour-long flight.
COOLING TENSIONS?
Despite often highly charged political tensions, trade and investment across
the narrow Taiwan Strait has boomed since the late 1980s, with about 1 million
Taiwanese now living and working in the mainland.
Taiwan businesspeople, who have poured up to US$100 billion into the Chinese
mainland, have long clamored for direct flights. Millions of Chinese rush home
for family reunions at the start of the Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb. 9
this year.
"This is a specific arrangement for New Year charter flights, but it is also
a symbol of showing good will from both sides," said Andrew Yang,
secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies, a prominent
private thinktank in Taipei.
"It is a win-win situation for both sides as the central government very much
wants to win the hearts and minds of the Taiwanese and appear to the general
public that it is doing whatever it can to resolve differences or disputes
peacefully," Yang said.
Taiwan, under pressure from the United States to seek reconciliation with
Beijing, has been eager for a resumption of quasi-official dialogue, which has
been frozen since 1999.
During the 2003 Lunar New Year holidays, charter flights between Shanghai and
Taipei were commissioned to Taiwan airlines only and they had to fly empty to
Shanghai to pick up passengers.
At the time, Taipei did not allow planes to fly directly between Taiwan and
the mainland, requiring them to make stops at an intermediate destination.
The new agreement will allow flights from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou on
the mainland and Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan, with each side allowed to
select six airlines for the routes.
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