Taipei - Taiwan and China will begin regular flights on
August 31, ending the six-decade ban on air links imposed by Taipei
at the end of the Chinese Civil War ni 1949, a newspaper reported
Tuesday.
The China Times quoted an unnamed Transport Ministry source as
saying that China told Taiwan Monday that it preferred August 31 as
the date for the start of regular flights.
Taipei has no objection to the date, but Taiwanese and Chinese
civil aviation authorities have yet to make a formal announcement.
Once the regular flights are launched, Taiwanese and Chinese
airlines will operate 270 round-trip flights each week across the
Taiwan Strait, up from the current 108 charter flights per week, the
paper said.
Ticket prices are expected to fall an average of 15 per cent from
the price for seats on cross-strait charter flights, the China Times
noted.
After being separated for six decades, Taiwan and China launched
holiday charter flights in 2003, which was expanded to weekend
charter flights in July 2008 and upgraded to daily charter flights in
December.
In talks held on April 26 in Beijing, Taipei and Beijing agreed to
turn daily charter flights into regular flights, as cross-strait ties
have been improving fast since President Ma Ying-jeou took office in
May 2008.
The aviation pact too effect on June 26, but the two sides'
authorities and airlines needed time to prepare for regular flights,
so China picked August 31 as the date for launching direct flights.
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